Brian Daboll and the Giants remain in the NFL’s crosshairs.
Nearly two weeks into the league’s investigation into the head coach and team’s handling of quarterback Jaxson Dart’s sideline concussion test during a game against the Eagles, silence remains. Are the findings coming soon?
“The investigation is ongoing,” NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said Tuesday at the league’s fall owners meetings in midtown. “In these things, we try to expedite it with the Players Association to get to a resolution, so I don’t know what ‘soon’ means in this context, but making progress.”
Daboll looked into the injury tent and claimed his intent was just to make sure that Dart was OK and not to rush an injured player back onto the field. Giants running back Cam Skattebo went a step further and went into the tent during Dart’s examination.
Coaches and uninjured players are prohibited from entering the tent and subject to six-figure fines for violating the league-mandated concussion protocol.
Daboll was later seen screaming at Giants physician Scott Rodeo on the sideline.
He apologized after the game and claimed that he was just looking for an answer on how long the process would take so that he knew whether to strategize for a timeout to buy time for Dart’s return on fourth down.
NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills sidestepped a question regarding his concerns about the optics of football personnel potentially influencing medical professionals in such situations.
“I think we will let the investigation play out before we reach all the conclusions that are important,” Miller said. “And when we do, as we’ve always [done] when we have looked at these with the Players Association, we’ll share our findings. Regardless of what they happen to be under certain circumstances, I think we’ve been transparent in the outcomes of these. When we’re done, we’ll share that publicly.”
Miller pushed back against the popular narrative that MetLife Stadium’s turf — which hosts twice the amount of games as most stadiums — is unsafe.
Giants’ Malik Nabers suffered a torn ACL at home in Week 3.
“As it relates to MetLife, they had one of the lowest injury rates — not just in synthetic [turf] but across the league last year,” Miller said. “It’s playing really well, and has for a while.”
NFL owners will vote Wednesday on the sale of a 10 percent stake in the Giants to businesswoman Julia Koch, who controls a minority stake in the Nets. No obstacles are foreseen.
Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch were on hand Tuesday for the meetings.
