A Harbaugh team meeting during training camp — an inside lookBen Queen-Imagn ImagesJordan RaananAug 14, 2026, 06:00 AM ETClose
- Jordan Raanan covers the New York Giants for ESPN and can be heard hosting on ESPN Radio. Raanan joined ESPN in 2016.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — John Harbaugh was admittedly nervous. He couldn’t wait to address the New York Giants for the first time.
The date was April 7. It had been 77 days since he was hired as their coach. And this was the first time he was allowed by rules to address the entire team.
“I’m standing up here in front of the New York Giants. The New York Giants,” Harbaugh stated while pacing the front of the meeting room at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center. “This is the New York Giants sitting in this room! The New York Giants! Wow! This is an honor.”
It was his first team meeting as coach of the Giants after 18 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. Harbaugh was genuinely excited to be leading one of the NFL’s marquee franchises considering the steep history and legacy. That was a massive part of his decision to take the job over several other options.
When the team released a snippet of this speech last month to promote the impending “Giants Life: The Offseason” video series, some fans viewed it as old-school and real. They were pumped that this was the new Giants coach and liked the attitude he brought with him from Baltimore. But it was also met with some ridicule and chuckles for its hokeyness.
Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton was among those especially critical of the speech. Speaking on his “4th&1” podcast, Newton questioned, “How could that be what inspires a group of grown men?” He stated the silence was awkward, the message was off. Newton thought Harbaugh should be sharing his vision for the Giants, explaining his core values and mission.
In reality, he did. Perhaps that just wasn’t the ideal one-minute promo to showcase his oratory skills and ability to captivate the room.
“It was the opening sentence of a whole meeting,” Harbaugh told ESPN last week at training camp in West Virginia. “That was about a 30-minute meeting to kind of just kick things off and get to know each other and just kind of talk about stuff that presents a vision for where we were going. So that was just the opening line. After that, then the message came.”
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Giants fullback Patrick Ricard, who previously played for Baltimore, defended Harbaugh’s speech on Instagram. Tight end Isaiah Likely also thought the public reaction wasn’t in line with the room in which it was spoken.
“I think it was taken way differently,” Likely stated.
That specific meeting was flush with introductions. First with the coaches and then the players, who each shared their identity and purpose. Harbaugh believed creating vulnerability would help team-building.
On a bigger scale, the clip wasn’t exactly an accurate depiction of what an everyday Harbaugh team meeting looks like. He specified that there are also different meetings for different times of the year. That was a first meeting ever with a team.
A Harbaugh team meeting during training camp begins with something he calls “wise words.” This is where individual players get up and share a daily message. It’s inspiration or advice, and the order for who speaks is selected based on seniority.
Harbaugh used “wise words” throughout his Ravens tenure. Just not always to start meetings. Often, it was after practices. He also employed something called “spotlight” in Baltimore during which a guy would tell his backstory to the team.
Veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. used “wise words” last Tuesday to say: “Yesterday’s touchdown doesn’t win you today’s game.” His point being you can’t rest on the laurels of a good practice. You have to bring it again the following day. Beckham had his second straight strong practice that afternoon.
Likely went with: “Win your 1/11th and be where your feet are,” which means take care of your own business first. Don’t try to do too much.
After the players offer their initial contributions at the team meetings, Harbaugh takes over.
If the previous day’s practice was poor, that’s when the team might get a “hard Harbaugh.” Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire”Then I might have something for the day or I might not, based on whatever’s kind of going on,” he stated. “A lot of times it’s a story, like something happens or sometimes it’s just whatever. It’s whatever I’m kind of feeling. And then right now, this time of year, we go through practice. So I’ve got about 30-35 plays from the practice that I want to make coaching points on.”If the previous day’s practice was poor, such as last week when the Giants committed 14 penalties in one session, that’s when you might get a “hard Harbaugh,” according to Likely. Though it’s rare to hear Harbaugh yelling over the music or other coaches during practice, he regularly coaches his players hard because he expects greatness every day and doesn’t want to see the same mistake again.Then Harbaugh will outline the plan for that day’s practice.”We’ll go through situations, whatever the situations are. We try to detail those out,” he stated. “We teach every situation. We always have some sort of teach-the-game type of a deal, whether it’s situations or it’s field position or it’s turnovers or it’s ball security or it’s how to get the ball north efficiently. There’s always these fundamentals that we’ll have something all through training camp.”The Giants even ended a practice last week by practicing long drives. This is what Harbaugh calls the “opportunity of fatigue.” He wants to see who can execute when they’re tired and hot, when things are hard. The new coach isn’t looking for his players to be perfect in this situation, just better than the guy lined up across from them.Harbaugh’s messages at the team meetings vary by the day. They can be historical, famous quotes or even something that was texted to him that morning, maybe even by his mom or dad. There will also be a message for that specific practice.And Harbaugh has quite the catalog to choose from having been a coach for 40-plus years.”I’ve been doing it for a long time. Even as a special teams coach, I had that stuff,” he stated. “So I have a lot of messages that I’ve had and I rewrite them every year.”Harbaugh has a computer file filled with messages and stories. He updates them to make them current and relevant. He hopes they’re better now than they were 10 years ago, knowing it’s important to evolve with the times.”Sometimes he’ll quote family, family history. Or somebody texts him in the morning,” Likely stated. “He’ll probably, if it goes with the message of his speech, he’ll put it in a team meeting, let him know, read it out loud, stuff like that.”Veteran defensive tackle DJ Reader stated one day last week that Harbaugh used a message as simple as, “It takes what it takes.” Reader liked that. He didn’t view it as anything profound but enjoyed that it was simple and to the point. Just get it done was his takeaway.
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Harbaugh uses a lot of personal stories. He likes to come clean with his feelings. He believes guys like that best because it’s authentic and shows the true, sometimes vulnerable, version of himself.
“And you can tell he’s wired a little bit different. Just in a quirky obsession type of way,” Reader stated. “He’s obsessed with ball and doing things the right way. And you can tell it’s him though. He can’t shut it off. He’s not up there faking it. And that’s fun to see.”
Harbaugh seems to be a lot more like his brother, Jim, head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, than most realize. Jim is known for his khaki pants and other quirks. John seems to suppress them more.
In the meetings, the Giants get the real John Harbaugh. An offbeat unifier who has proved his approach can lead to winning games with his previous team. If it works, why change it?
“He’s all about having everyone on the same page, building a vision of what he sees the football team and how we all should be thinking,” Ricard stated of his years with Harbaugh. “So every day he’ll give us a message and he’ll give it to us either by quotes, stories, maybe even historical, and he’ll try to relate it back to football and back to us as a team. And he just tries to have a vision. And then as the season goes on, even last year [in Baltimore] when we’re losing games early on, he just kept telling us, ‘We’re not giving up. We’re going to continue to fight. We’re going down swinging no matter what.’
“He’s always just trying to keep everyone together.”
