inside the giants Why John Harbaugh’s fast Giants start did not come as a surprise to his greatest rival By Paul Schwartz Published Sep. 16, 2026, 6:20 a.m. ET John Harbaugh walks off the field after guiding the Giants to a 28-20 win over the Cowboys in Week 1. Robert Sabo for NY Post Before John Harbaugh’s debut as the head coach of the Giants, one of his greatest combatants for nearly two decades predicted the pairing would turn out to be highly successful. And, perhaps, sooner than anticipated.
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The general feeling around the NFL was that Harbaugh would put his stamp on the Giants and winning would follow, eventually. It does take time to change the mindset of an entire franchise, from top to bottom. It does take time to install and adapt to new systems on offense, defense and special teams. And it does take time to reshape the roster in the image of the new guy in charge.
Harbaugh built a consistent winner in Baltimore and Mike Tomlin was there, on the other side, for all of it. Harbaugh spent 18 years with the Ravens before he was fired following the 2025 season. Tomlin spent 19 years with the Steelers before he stepped down after last season.
As AFC North rivals, Tomlin and Harbaugh squared off 40 times in the regular season. The Steelers won 23 of those games, the Ravens won 17. In the playoffs, the two teams met four times and played to a 2-2 split. Their back-and-forth produced the second-most meetings between rival head coaches, surpassed only by the NFL-record 49 games played between George Halas of the Bears and Curly Lambeau of the Packers, between 1921 and 1953.
