Tom Rock: John Harbaugh has brought 'football joy' back to the resurgent Giants
John Harbaugh said he felt “washed up”, “over-the-hill,” “weak” and “pathetic.”
Not exactly the words you want associated with the coach of an NFL team.
In this case, though, he was talking about his postgame embrace with Devin Singletary that quickly turned into a tackle (of sorts) and brought both men to the turf in the moments after the running back scored the winning touchdown in overtime in Houston last Sunday.
“Once we were on the ground laughing and enjoying the moment and celebrating the football joy moment of the touchdown run, it just made sense," Harbaugh said. "It made all the sense in the world.”
Football joy.
That’s a new term around here, and not only because most of the past few years have been filled with so much football misery. It’s a term Harbaugh has been stressing to the Giants players and coaches in recent weeks as they’ve faced down the adversity of season-ending injuries to starters and two turnover-plagued games, a tie and a loss, that could have been wins,and somehow managed to come through them so far with smiles and optimism and a grip on first place in the division.
And it’s starting to spread beyond just the roster as the fan base begins to buy in and believe in this team’s potential, too.
Harbaugh hasn’t only added the words to our collective vocabulary, he’s also the main reason why the phrase exists. It’s worth noting that this unofficial first half of the season heading into the bye week was bookended by two symbolically important tackles — both by him, the 64-year-old former defensive back out of Miami of Ohio. In the Saturday walk-through before the season opener, he unexpectedly brought Malik Nabers to the ground as a way of demonstrating that the wide receiver was ready to play coming back from his knee surgery. Then he recorded another takedown on Singletary on Sunday. That one showed that the team was ready to play.
“You kind of just get real lost in that moment for a minute or two,” Singletary told Newsday of his memories of that Harbaugh tackle. “I saw him and we locked eyes and we ran to each other. Obviously we were hyped. It was just like a big hug and somehow we fell. We were just laughing about it. We were both like, ‘I love you! I love you.’ A lot of excitement, a lot of joy.”
There’s that word again.
So what is “football joy?”
It’s something different than the elation one gets from, say, getting married or having children or even winning the lottery, Harbaugh explained.
“It's kind of gritty. It's kind of tough. It's fierce,” he said. “That was a football joy moment. That's why we do it. I think it's why the fans love it, love to watch it and love being a part of it.”
Others had their own takes on the concept. Singletary said it is the feeling of having hard work pay off.
“You go through a lot on the field, off the field, with your brothers, week in and week out, and when you are getting a win, that’s football joy,” he told Newsday. “It can be winning a game, it can be winning a drive, it can be winning a rep, it can be winning a day of practice.”
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy added that football joy is “obviously a byproduct of success and winning and making big plays,” but it’s also about coming together to achieve those things.
“When all 11 are doing their job,” he told Newsday, “what is a better feeling than that?”
There is also an element of overcoming that adds to it. Singletary was a healthy scratch in games earlier this season before he won the game for the Giants. McCarthy had been relegated to a third-stringer in Minnesota before he was traded to the Giants in September. One of the Giants’ touchdowns on Sunday was scored by Jameis Winston in the first game after he’d lost his starting job, another by Cam Skattebo a game after he wasn’t given a single carry because of fumbling troubles.
Heck, even Harbaugh had to be fired by the Ravens in order to land here in New York.
“Everybody's got their story, everybody's got their path,” Harbaugh said. “And we are where we are now because we didn't quit. We didn't back down. We didn't sulk. I'm just proud of the guys for that, but that's who they are. It's not anything other than their character shining through and I just have so much admiration for those guys for that very thing.”
So do we. The only things New Yorkers love more than winners are people who surmount challenges to become winners. It reminds us of the challenges we all face and that they too can be topped.
It’s why so many can’t help but feel taken by these spunky, feisty Giants. This team that sometimes can look as clumsy as a Harbaugh tackle attempt but keeps finding ways to get up and try again.
A winning record, a playoff chance, meaningful November games — these are all significant achievements from the 2026 Giants so far. But simply managing to bring “football joy” back to the local scene? To us? That may be their biggest accomplishment yet.
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.
