Giants Country

Giants Adapting "DAWG" Mentality

The feisty Giants are no longer int he mood to serve as a punching bag for opponents.

Patricia Traina

East Rutherford, NJ -- August 1, 2024 -- Kayvon Thibodeaux practicing today at training camp for the New York Giants.
East Rutherford, NJ -- August 1, 2024 -- Kayvon Thibodeaux practicing today at training camp for the New York Giants. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
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New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll wants his players and coaches to approach the game with a little “dawg” in them.

To ensure that happened, the head coach had the team’s equipment staff print up some black T-shirts sporting the acronym “DAWG” on the front, which stands for “Discipline, Attitude, Win, Grit.”

The Giants are certainly off to a good start in living up to that mantra. On Monday, they stood toe-to-toe with the Detroit Lions in the first of two practices against their preseason-opening opponent. The Giants, who a year ago in joint practices were smacked around by the Lions, matched and, at times, exceeded the Lions’ intensity over the course of a nearly two-hour practice under the blistering summer sun.

The practice, perhaps one of the most physical the Giants have had in years against another team, featured several brawls when Giants players took exception to how the gritty Lions approached the game. 

There was a sideline-clearing brawl between the Giants' defense and the Lions offense to kick things off. Later the Giants offense got into it with the Lions' defense when a Lions defender knocked running back Eric Gray’s helmet off his head with a little too hard of a hit, a play that followed a Lions defender hitting quarterback Daniel Jones.

Speaking of Jones, he even got involved in the mix when after a play was whistled over, some Lions were holding center Greg Van Roten on the ground. Some pushing and shoving ensued and Jones came flying in to get involved in the melee.

The practice ended with another confrontation, this one on the Giants' sideline, where general manager Joe Schoen Bracelet played peacemaker.

The two teams will face off again on Tuesday, but it remains to be seen whether they have gotten all their aggression out of their system or if more fisticuffs are in store.

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Patricia Traina

PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for over three decades for various media outlets. She is the host of the Locked On Giants podcast and the author of "The Big 50: New York Giants: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants" (Triumph Books, September 2020). View Patricia's full bio.

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