Giants vs. Titans Week 1 preview: What you need to know for gameday
Giants head coach Brian Daboll coaches against the Jets during the third quarter of a preseason game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 28. Credit: Brad Penner
GIANTS AT TITANS. NISSAN STADIUM, 4:25 p.m.
VITALS
Line: Titans by 5 1/2; O/U 43 1/2
TV: FOX (Kevin Kugler, Mark Sanchez)
Radio: WFAN-660 AM; Sirius 158; XM 385
NOTABLE INJURIES
Giants: DOUBTFUL: LB Kayvon Thibodeaux (knee), LB Azeez Ojulari (calf).
Titans: OUT: LB Harold Landry (knee/IR).
VRABEL VS. DABOLL
Mike Vrabel and Brian Daboll are on somewhat equal footing these days, both head coaches in the NFL, but when they first met that wasn’t quite the case. Vrabel was an impressive NFL linebacker who joined the Patriots in 2001 and Daboll back then was in the second year of his stint as a defensive assistant, the lowest rung on the New England totem pole.
This week, before Daboll’s first game as head coach of the Giants, Vrabel recalled some of their earliest days together. On Fridays during practices while the players stretched on one side of the field, he said, Daboll and fellow assistant Rob Ryan would run routes against each other at the opposite end zone with another assistant, Josh McDaniels, at quarterback.
“Watching those two in parkas in about 30 degree (temperatures) and Josh playing quarterback, it would make us laugh every Friday,” Vrabel said.
Vrabel did come to respect Daboll, despite the goofy tableau he struck on those Fridays in Foxborough. Daboll was promoted to wide receivers coach in 2002, his first stint as an offensive coach, and they won three Super Bowls together.
“Very knowledgeable, a guy who could coach a lot of different positions early on,” he said.
Daboll has fond memories of Vrabel from those days as well.
“It’s not surprising where he is considering how smart he was as a player,” Daboll said. “He kind of was one step ahead of everybody… He was a great teammate. He was a fun guy to coach. He was a leader. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
Daboll said it’s hard to believe it’s been over two decades since those first days together.
“It goes by in a split second,” he said.
They’ll find themselves on opposite sidelines Sunday, this time vying to be the one who comes away laughing.
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.
