Tom Rock: Al Michaels, Mike Tomlin impressed by what John Harbaugh's done in first year with Giants
Giants coach John Harbaugh looks on from the sidelines during the fourth quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles on Nov. 8, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pa. Credit: Todd Olszewski/Getty Images
There’s no arguing that John Harbaugh has rejuvenated the Giants. They came into Thursday’s game with a 5-2-1 record and a firm grip on first place with a chance to win their first NFC East title since 2011.
But have the Giants rejuvenated him?
Two current broadcasters who have known him for years gave that question a resounding “no” this week. It wasn’t because of anything the Giants had or hadn’t done, though. It was all about Harbaugh.
“I’m not sure he needed a lot of rejuvenation,” Al Michaels, who called Thursday night’s critical division game against the Commanders on Prime, told Newsday. “I didn’t see him fading in Baltimore. We had him a couple of times in Baltimore last year and the year before. I saw the same vibrancy… What I saw was the frustration of not having a team as good as some of their previous teams, but I didn’t see John needing any juice or a bolt or something.”
Mike Tomlin, now at NBC Sports after many years coaching against Harbaugh, concurred.
“I don’t know that John was ever lacking intensity or energy,” he told Newsday.
None of that has tailed off one bit in this new gig. We often keep a close eye out for players who get big contracts and start to coast a little bit. They get a little too comfortable, stop pushing themselves as hard as they did when they were hungry. It’s a very human reaction.
That means it’s something that could happen to a coach, too. It took one of the richest contracts in the league to draw Harbaugh here after he parted ways with the Ravens. That certainly could have dulled his edge on a subconscious level.
Yet by all accounts Harbaugh is as fiery, dedicated and alert to details as ever.
In fact, those traits are exactly what have made him and the Giants so successful through their first few months of action together.
“I’ve certainly seen what he’s infused into that collective,” Tomlin said.
He pointed to a video clip from a few weeks back of a Giants player running down the field and the entire sideline trotting along with him.
“You could see how everyone was engaged,” Tomlin said. “I think that speaks to what he has done for them in terms of making them appreciate the urgency required to win and win consistently.
“When I look at them I see a really urgent group,” he added. “We don’t give that enough analysis in terms of how it impacts games. Teams that play hard, teams that are urgent, teams that are willing to fight. I think those are some the things I’ve seen John consistently instill in the teams that he leads, and I’ve seen it in New York.”
Thursday was Michaels’ seventh time calling a Giants-Washington game in primetime, but his first one on Prime with Kirk Herbstreit. He recalled the first time he ever broadcast a game in the rivalry. It was 1986, his first year in ABC’s Monday Night Football booth, and he was working alongside Frank Gifford.
It was also the night that the Mets were playing in Game 7 of their World Series against the Red Sox. That contest had been scheduled for the day before but was rained out.
Michaels said it was “the most different” of all the games he did in the series, especially since he knew that the ratings would be so low as the country was riveted to the baseball action.
Even in Giants Stadium fans were watching the Mets on their portable WatchMan television sets. Michaels had one of those too in the broadcast booth and he had one eye on the Mets as well. “As a baseball fan I wanted to see what was going on,” he said. There were more than a few times when he would interrupt his football calls for baseball updates, especially when the crowd’s roars were out of sync with the action in East Rutherford.
On Thursday there were no other big games to pay attention to. This Giants game was the one. And Harbaugh was the star of it.
Michaels said he recently asked Harbaugh if he considered taking a year or two off the way Tomlin did and the way others such as Bill Cowher and Dick Vermeil had. Cowher never returned to the sideline while Vermeil did and won a Super Bowl. We’ll see what becomes of Tomlin.
“He said, ‘Yeah, I thought about it for 20 minutes,’ ” Michaels said. “’And then my wife said, ‘no, no, no, you’re going to coach.‘’ And, he said, she was right.”
Harbaugh followed the footsteps of his mentor, Andy Reid, who went straight from a long stretch in Philadelphia to Kansas City.
“I thought if I ever saw anybody who needed a year off it was Andy,” Michaels said. “But no, he went right back to Kansas City and look what he’s done. That speaks for itself.”
Now Harbaugh and the Giants are speaking for themselves.
“Everybody talks about culture, but you can see that with the Giants they are a team that has completely bought into what he is bringing,” Michaels said. “This is a team that had done next to nothing over the last few years and he has brought a vitality and a vibrancy. A new coaching staff. So far so good. I’m not saying you can start printing playoff tickets, but it would be no surprise if the Giants make it to the postseason right now.
“There is a lot to like.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
