The Giants are now in the market for the NFL franchise’s fifth head coach in the past decade, after firing Brian Daboll following a 2–8 start to the season.

New York made the move Monday, in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss to the Bears, the team’s fourth straight defeat since upsetting the Eagles on Oct. 9. 

Daboll was in the fourth season of a five-year deal he signed in 2022, estimated to be worth up to $30 million. 

The Giants announced that GM Joe Schoen, who was hired at the same time as Daboll and also signed a five-year contract, will “lead the search for a new head coach.” New York is 20-40-1 since the duo was hired and has just one winning season—in 2022, when the Giants finished 9-7-1 in Daboll’s first year. The club finished 6–11 in 2023 and 3–14 last season.

“We feel like Joe has assembled a good young nucleus of talent, and we look forward to its development,” Giants owner John Mara said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the results over the past three years have not been what any of us want. We take full responsibility for those results and look forward to the kind of success our fans expect.” 

Some moves under the watch of Daboll and Schoen also include parting ways with two former first-round draft picks—running back Saquon Barkley (drafted No. 2 overall in 2018) and quarterback Daniel Jones (No. 6 overall in 2019). Both have gone on to flourish with the Eagles and Colts, respectively.

Giants assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka will serve as interim head coach.

Daboll and Schoen were believed to be on the hot seat following last season, but Mara opted to keep them both for the 2025 season. “It better not take too long, because I’ve just about run out of patience,” Mara said in January of the timeline for the franchise to turn things around.

Coaching Carousel

Daboll’s replacement will be the fifth head coach of the Giants since 2016:

• 2016–17: Ben McAdoo (13–15)
• 2018–19: Pat Shurmur (9–23)
• 2020–21: Joe Judge (10–23)
• 2022–25: Brian Daboll (20-40-1)

New York has made just two postseason appearances since the Tom Coughlin era ended after the 2015 season. 

Schoen and Daboll were centerpieces of Hard Knocks: Offseason in 2024, which showcased the Giants deciding not to re-sign Barkley, who ultimately won the Super Bowl with the Eagles.

The next Giants coaching regime will inherit quarterback Jaxson Dart, who was selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Other young talents include fellow rookie running back Cam Skattebo and second-year wide receiver Malik Nabers, both of whom sustained season-ending injuries this year.

Presidential politics have potentially returned to the Commanders’ forthcoming $3.8 billion stadium and mixed-use development in the District of Columbia.

The plan to build at the site of RFK Stadium, the team’s former home, has been largely free of controversy since the D.C. council approved $1.1 billion in public funding for the project through two votes, first in early August and then in mid-September. 

U.S. President Donald Trump, however, is looking to reinsert himself not only in the development process but also regarding the facility’s moniker. ESPN reported Saturday that Trump wants to have the domed stadium named for him when it opens in 2030.

“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement provided to Front Office Sports. 

There are multiple issues with that statement, however. The deal to transfer control of the federally owned land at RFK Stadium to the D.C. government—a critical step that jump-started the entire stadium effort—happened during the final days of Joe Biden’s presidential term.  

The new venue, meanwhile, will be an entirely fresh construction, and not a “rebuilding.” And while certain federal agencies that are currently controlled by Trump or Trump loyalists will weigh in on certain matters related to the Commanders’ stadium, the project is largely a local matter now, following the land transfer. 

Naming the facility after Trump, meanwhile, would also require the Commanders to forgo a critical revenue stream from the naming rights that will be worth at least eight figures annually. In some cases for NFL stadium naming rights, those fees exceed $20 million per year. The stadium deal between the D.C. government and the Commanders rests control of those naming rights with the team.

The Commanders declined to comment, but team sources said there have been no formal conversations with the White House on the stadium naming.

This also isn’t the first time Trump has sought to inject himself in the Commanders’ stadium pursuit, as he has also lobbied for the NFL team to revert to its prior nickname as a condition for the venue’s approval. D.C. council members downplayed that notion this past summer, and they proceeded with their efforts to review, and ultimately green-light, the stadium funding.

Rough Reaction

Trump, meanwhile, also appeared at Northwest Stadium on Sunday for the Commanders’ 44–22 loss to the Lions, where he was a guest of team owner Josh Harris. There, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NFL regular-season game since Jimmy Carter in 1978.

The president participated in a halftime salute to military service, where he was loudly booed by attending fans. He also appeared in the Fox Sports broadcast booth, where he was not asked about the stadium naming issue. Trump did bring up the facility himself, though.

“They’re going to build a beautiful stadium in Washington. That’s what I’m involved in, getting all the approvals and everything else,” he said. “They’ve got a wonderful owner with Josh [Harris] and his group, and you’re going to see some very good things.”

Phil Mickelson said he has hired veteran defamation lawyer Tom Clare as he combats the fallout from a recent report that included leaked messages from the professional golfer and led to an offshore oil company launching an independent review of improper insider information potentially being shared.

Clare is a partner at Clare Locke LLP, which identifies itself as a firm that litigates complex defamation matters and represents clients facing high-profile reputational attacks. Clare has previously handled defamation matters for Fortune 500 companies and prominent individuals, including CEOs, hedge fund managers, university presidents, professional athletes and sports teams, and other celebrities.

“I know from experience that being in the public eye makes me a frequent target for sensationalized media coverage,” Mickelson wrote on X/Twitter. “I get that it comes with the territory but there are legal limits on false reports. And while I may have been willing to ‘let it go’ in the past, I’m no longer going to sit quietly and take it when those lines are crossed. I have retained world-class defamation counsel Tom Clare to advise and represent me on this ‘article’ by Hunterbrook and anyone who reposts it. More to come.”

Clare did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Front Office Sports.

How We Got Here

On Oct. 31, financial publication Hunterbrook released an article with the headline, “Exclusive: Exxon Spinout Sable Leaked Key Info to Investors Including Golfer Phil Mickelson.”

The story claimed, “On a leaked call, Sable Offshore CEO Jim Flores told a select group of investors in October that the company would likely have to raise up to $200 million in equity by the end of 2025. The company had not disclosed this dilutive equity offering publicly.”

Mickelson announced he had hired Clare on Friday morning, shortly after Hunterbrook journalist Sam Koppelman, one of the original story’s co-authors, revealed more details on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. Those new details included another leaked message from Mickelson to some Sable investors that read, “Big daddy TRUMP ready to swing his 14 inch cock in front of [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s face will drive up any stock.”

Insider Trading Allegations

The Hunterbrook/Sable situation is the latest financial controversy to involve Mickselson. 

In 2016, Mickelson was named by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in insider trading charges against professional sports gambler Billy Walters. 

Mickelson neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations that he traded Dean Foods Company’s securities at Walters’s urging, and used his almost $1 million of trading profits to help repay his own gambling debt to Walters, who was owed money by then–Dean Foods board member Thomas C. Davis. According to the SEC complaint, Davis regularly shared inside information about Dean Foods with Walters in advance of market-moving events.

Mickelson agreed to pay full disgorgement of his trading profits totaling $931,738.12 plus interest of $105,291.69.

Walters was found guilty of the insider trading charges in 2017 and received a five-year prison sentence. In 2021, he was released early after receiving one of President Donald Trump’s final pardons before finishing his first term in office.

Betting Addiction

In his 2023 book Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk, Walters alleged that Mickelson wagered more than $1 billion in sports bets during the past three decades, with Walters and other bookies. Walters estimated the golfer lost $100 million in total.

Mickelson has been open about his gambling addiction. “I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now,” he wrote on social media in 2023 after the Walters book was released.