Brian Daboll, players address tension with Wink Martindale after 10-7 win over Patriots: ‘I don’t want no stepdad’

The Giants scored an ugly 10-7 win over Bill Belichick’s Patriots on Sunday, then spent the postgame trying to clean up an ugly mess in their own house.

Joe Schoen’s and Brian Daboll’s year two dysfunction snuck into FOX’s national broadcast when insider Jay Glazer reported that Daboll and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale are “in a bad place” and Martindale might not even last the full season on staff.

“I don’t see them actually continuing their relationship after the season, maybe not even during the season,” Glazer said. “Could be a mutual parting of ways.”

People in the building told Glazer: “The tension between these two, you can feel it.”

Daboll responded with some Grade-A damage control.

He gave Martindale Sunday’s game ball. He glared at a Daily News reporter who dared to tweet that Glazer’s pregame report had only scratched the surface of the franchise’s mess. And he cracked a joke that “the biggest argument Wink and I have had is who gets the last piece of pizza.”

Some of Daboll’s players used the same joke to brush the controversy aside.

“I got a lot of respect for Wink,” Daboll said. “Glad he’s on the staff.”

For how much longer? That’s the question now.

Martindale deserved Sunday’s game ball after his defense forced three turnovers to carry the Giants (4-8) to their first two-game winning streak of the season heading into a late bye week.

Deonte Banks, Bobby Okereke and Xavier McKinney all preyed for picks on pathetic Patriots starting quarterback Mac Jones (two INTs) and backup Bailey Zappe, who replaced the benched Jones at half.

The Giants offense scored all 10 of its points on short fields off Okereke’s and McKinney’s turnovers: a 12-yard Tommy DeVito TD pass to Isaiah Hodgins late in the second quarter for a 7-0 halftime lead, and a 42-yard Randy Bullock field goal midway through the fourth quarter to snap a 7-7 tie.

Bullock made up for knocking the opening kickoff of the second half out of bounds, giving the Patriots favorable field position to set up Rhamondre Stevenson’s 7-yard TD run to tie the game midway through the third quarter.

The game still looked like it was headed for overtime until Patriots kicker Chad Ryland missed a 35-yard chip shot wide left with three seconds remaining.

But afterward, Daboll’s and Martindale’s players were left to answer for what was going on behind the scenes. All of them said the report of tension between the coaches caught them off guard.

“I was shocked,” corner Adoree Jackson said. “I don’t think there’s [any] tension, no ill will, no bad blood or nothing between those two … I see Dabes in our meeting rooms talking to us, aha, they’re laughing. If that’s the case, they must need to get an Oscar or something. Good a– actors.”

Okereke added: “I haven’t caught any whiff of that. I haven’t sensed any of that. And I know they’re grown men even if it was. It’s a professional business, so I know they’ll handle it. I think those two do a great job leading our organization.”

Edge rusher Jihad Ward said: “Whatever the media’s seen or whatever ya’ll think or assume, it’s not the case. We’re just trying to win games. Those guys never had [any] type of heated situation. It’s all about communication. So they’re real close.”

Even if the players are insulated, however, that doesn’t change the fact that Martindale could be on his way out, whether it happens soon or after the season.

There is a world, actually, in which the Giants could retain this GM and head coach and need to hire three new coordinators for the 2024 season given the statuses of offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey, too.

And the harsh reality that Martindale could move on was tough for Jackson to swallow.

“I think losing a guy like Wink would be a huge blow,” the veteran corner said. “That’s why I don’t think he’ll do it. Because if you’re gonna do something like that, I don’t know, that’d be crazy. Wink is, aside from being a good coach, a good person.”

Why would it be crazy?

“To be honest, that’s like, let’s say you were a kid and you see your parents get into it and then they get a divorce,” Jackson said. “Then you’re sitting there like, ‘Damn, what the f— is going on?’

“And that’s how I personally feel it would be — it’s not gonna happen — but if that situation was to happen,” he continued, “that’s how I would be: like ‘What the hell is going on? Did we do something wrong? Is it us? Is it this? Is it that?’ And it [would be] too much confusion. That’s how I view it.”

Okereke said both Daboll and Martindale were responsible for the “great energy” in the locker room and building every day. Ward said of Martindale: “We love him to the fullest. He’s definitely family.”

Jackson didn’t like the idea that this could bring change to a dynamic he prefers, though.

“[Martindale] coaches well, but he also listens to everybody and listens to the things we may want to change throughout the week or even during the game, which I think is cool,” Jackson said. “And I feel like you can’t have somebody else coming in. It could be the same, but at the end of the day that’s like somebody saying you’re gonna have a new stepdad or a stepmom. But I want my daddy or momma. I don’t want no stepdad.”

Martindale’s defense now has forced 11 turnovers in the last three games, the most by any Giants defense in a three-game span since 2012. Schoen is scheduled to address the media for the first time this season on Monday.

His team has five games remaining in this lost season, but those results matter way less now compared to the state of his coaching staff and the direction of the franchise into 2024.