Daboll out. Belichick back?

By BRUCE LOWITT

The New York Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll after his wife, Beth, asked that they dismiss him “because as much as he loved the job and the players,” she said, “he was nothing short of insane when he got home after the games.”

After granting her wish Monday, Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch called University of North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick on Tuesday and made a conditional offer to lure him back to the National Football League as their head coach, the deal contingent on him leaving UNC before the Tar Heels’  almost certain loss to Wake Forest on Saturday.

The Dabolls, married since 2009, have six children between them, two apiece from previous marriages and a 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter together “and after almost every game he walked in the door and started screaming at the kids and tried to kick the dog – and we don’t even have a dog,” Beth Daboll said.

The Giants, 2-8 this season and 20-40-1 over Daboll’s three-plus seasons, pulled the plug the day after New York, leading the Chicago Bears 20-10 with about 10 minutes remaining, reverted to their usual form of collapsing in the fourth quarter and lost 24-20.

“Hey, I’m an OFF-ensive genius,” Daboll said after kicking over the postgame lectern as well as defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. “We put up 34 points beating the Eagles and were up 26-8 in Denver with 10 (minutes) to play before blowing both that lead and the one in Chicago. And they’re keeping Bowen and (General Manager Joe) Schoen?”

Belichick, a Giants assistant coach and defensive coordinator from 1979-90, during which they won two of their four Super Bowls, later lost two Super Bowls to them as head coach of the New England Patriots, who fired him after they went 4-13 in 2023.

Mara said he wants “to save Bill from himself before North Carolina’s season goes completely down the toilet. He’s won two in a row over Syracuse and Stanford, a pair of teams even crappier than his, and are 4-5 overall. But UNC might not win again – thank goodness they only have three games left – and I’m afraid that he’s going to start having deeply troubling thoughts when Wake’s Demon Deacons beat the snot out of the Tar Heels. Another loss and Bill will be a mental case and not worth shit to us.”

According to a member of the UNC coaching staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want his father to ground him, the 73-year-old Belichick was considering the Giants’ offer, but was hesitating because Jordan Hudson, his 24-year-old girlfriend and financial advisor, was insisting that she be named the NFL team’s general  manager.

Hudson, however, laughed at the suggestion that she was even slightly interested in a front-office job “with that dumpster fire of a franchise. But if any of those Tisch boys are single …”