Mike Vrabel made it personal, and you can take that to the bank. He could stand there with one hand over his heart and the other over a stack of bibles and swear that New England’s beatdown of the Giants was strictly business, and still I would not believe him.

The Giants crushed his dream in Super Bowl XLII. The 2007 Patriots were denied a chance to finish 19-0 and go down as the greatest NFL team ever, and some haunted men who were in their locker room later said they had never felt such sweeping devastation.

That was Vrabel’s 19th and final postseason game as a Patriots linebacker. He won three Super Bowl rings before the Giants denied him a fourth. That year, Vrabel had career-highs in sacks (12.5) and forced fumbles (5), and caught two touchdown passes to earn All-Pro honors (first team) for the only time in his career. And then the underdog Giants stole away the only trophy that really mattered to him and every fellow apostle of the Patriot Way.

I’d bet good money that crossed Vrabel’s mind when he saw those Giants jerseys Monday night, and when he watched his team unleash a fast and furious assault on the enemy, including the kind of vicious sideline shot on Jaxson Dart that the first-year Patriots coach would’ve loved to put on Eli Manning back in the day.

Players had to be separated after Patriots LB Christian Elliss hit Jaxson Dart along the sideline. pic.twitter.com/wZPTVasGSw

— ESPN (@espn) December 2, 2025

The Patriots were up 30-7 at the half, and to at least one viewer old enough to remember, something obvious came to mind.

The Giants used physicality to beat Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in two Super Bowls, and to knock them around some during the regular season too. New England had more talent, but New York had more toughness. The Giants always believed that was their one edge on the dynasty to the north, and yet all these years later, the Patriots were the ones outhitting them, by a wide margin, and out-scheming them too. Vrabel left the building with an 11-2 record.

The Giants embarrassed themselves before the game (thanks to Abdul Carter), during the game (thanks to Younghoe Koo) and after the game (thanks to Mike Kafka). They were 2-11 for a second straight season, and losers of seven straight games and 13 straight road games. The next day, the man most responsible for that body of work had to stand before a mob carrying pitchforks and torches — I mean, iPhones and notebooks — and respond to all of their allegations.

Joe Schoen, beleaguered general manager, took it like a trouper. From the other side of their electronic devices, fans were cheering on the working press. When’s the last time that ever happened?

Here’s a better question:

Why was Schoen even there in the first place?

Temperature rising

On Nov. 10, when Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch fired head coach Brian Daboll, they kept the GM who had hired him. Schoen had the same 20-40-1 record as Daboll but did not meet the same fate. Three more losses later, that decision looks very much like a mistake.

Schoen has become a toxic figure among a fan base that Mara cares dearly about. He’s not at Nico Harrison levels, but close enough. And speaking of the fired Dallas Mavericks GM, the Giants could have done what the Mavericks did and named co-interim GMs to maintain a semblance of front-office stability throughout the season. They could’ve appointed assistant GM Brandon Brown and longtime Giants executive Kevin Abrams or just made Brown the front office’s Kafka. That would’ve lowered the paying customers’ temperature while also taking a quick look at a fresh face in the big chair.

It’s too late for that now. Schoen will survive a bye week that, according to a Giants Nation Show poll, nearly 93 percent of 17,370 voting fans hoped would be a bye-bye week, and then he’s expected to face a final judgment at season’s end.

Meanwhile, Schoen is now busy working the back channels, identifying coaching candidates, and sharing that information with Mara and Tisch, who will make the final call on Daboll’s/Kafka’s replacement. The Giants cannot possibly strike out again on this hire. They cannot hire another Daboll, Joe Judge, Pat Shurmur or Ben McAdoo. They cannot hire another novice, or another head coach who was 9-23 with the likes of the Cleveland Browns. (In a shocker, Shurmur was also 9-23 with the Giants.)

They have to hire a candidate with credible head-coaching experience, which is why Brian Flores made more sense than Daboll did in 2022. Flores had won 49 percent of his games with the Dolphins and had delivered two winning seasons out of three. Daboll, a first-timer, went on to win 33.6 percent of his games with the Giants and delivered one winning season out of four.

So here’s problem No. 2 with Schoen still being on the job. The Giants need to hire the best available coach, not the one who happens to have no issues working with Joe Schoen. Those are very different things.

As there’s no margin for error in this search, Schoen’s presence is an unnecessary complication, and one a prominent and experienced head coach with options might not want to deal with. The GM has lost 28 of his last 34 games, and he’s supposed to fill out Mike Tomlin’s roster?

Listen, in fairness, Schoen is not without his redeeming qualities. He does deserve total credit for moving up and drafting Dart, full stop. On his two most important hires, head coach and quarterback, Schoen went 1-for-2.

He has acquired some ballers in key playmaking and line positions, and he has modernized Dave Gettleman’s office, though that’s a bit like replacing your grandfather’s window unit with central air.

Jaxson Dart’s mindset heading into the bye week

🎥: https://t.co/Z2MBLeNRUO pic.twitter.com/NwUBxSTZoS

— GiantsTV (@GiantsTV) December 2, 2025

Oh, and Schoen isn’t John Dillinger. His worst crime is being an earnest, hard-working guy who is not good at his current job. And there have been league GMs who survived a lousy coaching hire and made amends the second time around. Chicago’s Ryan Poles made it from Matt Eberflus to Ben Johnson and, at 9-3, the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Of course, there are also examples of executives swinging and missing multiple times, such as Schoen’s predecessor. Gettleman hired Shurmur and Judge, who talked and coached himself out of a job in the 2021 season with an angry news conference rant and a couple of clown-show quarterback sneaks.

As much as Mara hates to lose, he hates to be embarrassed even more. Carter’s second benching over persistent tardiness became a national story on national TV, as did Koo’s tragicomedy of an attempted kick. These are Schoen’s players, and the GM would be wise to make sure his final four games are free of any more foolishness.

Can Schoen actually save himself by going 3-1, or by going 2-2 with a punctuating victory over the Cowboys? I don’t believe Mara will learn anything new over the next month about his GM’s ability (or lack thereof) to identify and acquire talent, or his ability to assemble a quality staff. I do believe Mara will consider fan sentiment, and that’s why these meaningless games have meaning.

Schoen needs victories to calm the masses and inspire ownership to convert him from the guy who “will lead the search for a new head coach” into the guy who “will finish the search for a new head coach.”

The GM didn’t win anything in his rip-roaring news conference, other than a few effort points for hanging in there and playing better defense than a lot of his free agents and draft picks. But in their search for somewhat solid footing and the desperately needed superstar coach, the Giants would’ve been better off with someone other than Joe Schoen leading the way.

Score it as their 12th loss of the season.