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It has not taken first-year head coach Brian Daboll very long to turn the New York Giants into a competitive — and very relevant — football team. He has used some interesting techniques to foster an environment of competitiveness within the organization.
One of those techniques is Madden games during team meetings.
Defensive lineman Nick Williams told the Athletic this week that on the eve of training camp Daboll would pick one offensive player and one defensive player, make them both play as the Giants, and that everybody on the team would be getting into it.
“When I first got here, (coach Brian Daboll) would pick one player on offense and one player on defense in the team meeting room and we’d play Madden,” Williams said. “It would be Giants vs. Giants, so we would be on defense and they would be on offense, and they would try to score. The defense is cheering, the offense is cheering.”
In the weeks and months since then, Daboll has made a habit of randomly assigning Madden matchups during meetings to make players compete in two-minute drills to try and score against each other.
Along with Madden games, the Giants also have fierce ping-pong battles in the locker room, along with weight room competitions and everything else that can drive competition.
Is all of that the key to the Giants’ newfound success? Of course not. But these things probably do more for morale and team building when you are winning. And the Giants are doing a lot of winning so far this season. Following Sunday’s come-from-behind win against the Baltimore Ravens, the Giants find themselves with a 5-1 record and are in a three-team battle with Philadelphia and Dallas at the top of the NFC East.
That record already includes wins against Green Bay, Tennessee, and Baltimore, while their next four games are against Jacksonville, Seattle, Houston, and Detroit. There is a great opportunity here to really get off to a great start that could put them in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot.
The Giants have won more than six games just one time over the past eight seasons and have a chance to at least match that total on Sunday against the Jaguars.
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