Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Wink Martindale: Working with Brian Daboll was different in 2022 because we were winning

Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has reportedly had tensions with head coach Brian Daboll, but Martindale says the primary cause of the tension is that both of them want to win.

Martindale said that if the relationship was better in 2022, it’s because the team was better in 2022.

“We’re fine,” Martindale said, via the New York Post. “It’s the same thing as it was last year. It was just different because we were winning more games. It’s different every place you go — the relationship with the head coach and the defensive coordinator or assistants — especially when it’s new.”

Asked if he always sees eye-to-eye with Daboll, Martindale answered, “I don’t see eye-to-eye with my wife all the time. He’s the head coach and it’s my job to forward his plan. That’s what I’m going to do.”

When a head coach and defensive coordinator aren’t seeing eye-to-eye but the team is in the playoffs and winning a playoff game, as the Giants did last year, it’s easy to overlook their differences. Not so much this year, when the Giants are 4-8.