John Harbaugh: "I didn’t have to do anything" after Abdul Carter-Jaxson Dart dustup

Back in May, the Giants navigated through a murky situation after edge rusher Abdul Carter publicly rebuked quarterback Jaxson Dart for introducing President Donald Trump at a rally.

The two teammates publicly squashed the proverbial beef soon after, making a clear effort to prevent the issue from becoming a further distraction.

In an interview with the Dominique Foxworth Show that was released on Monday, head coach John Harbaugh brought up the situation when addressing a question about team culture.

“I think that emotional intelligence that you’re talking about, it takes everybody having a mindset that we are in here to get out and play well together. And that’s going to be really important for all of our success. And now, let’s make some really wise decisions on how we want to go about doing that,” Harbaugh said. “It may be like the thing we went through with Jaxson and Abdul, the conversations we had around that — that’s one little piece of that journey in deciding how we’re going to operate together. And I think a coach is responsible for being aware of all of those things every single day that are happening in real time that are going to bring us together so that we can operate together when the battle hits the fan.”

Harbaugh saw the issue between Carter and Dart as an opportunity, which makes sense given that it popped up during the low-stakes time of the offseason program.

“One-hundred percent, yes, truly an opportunity,” Harbaugh said. “Those are welcome things because those are going to happen. Those types of things — I told the guys, this is not a one-off. This is not the first time we’re going to be thrown into this very thing, the political, social discourse. So we have to have conversations in a reasonable — in a way that respects one another. So, how are we going to go about this? What do you guys think?

“And, really, honestly, Dominique, I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to say anything, really. The players said it. They laid the ground rules down for the guys and decided how it would be approached going forward. So now, when these waves keep coming in from the ocean and crash against our shore, I think we’ll be better prepared for them going forward because we’ll be expecting them. And we’ll be talking about how we’re going to deal with them.”

Giants rookies are set to report to training camp on July 23 with veterans reporting on July 28.