In many team sports here in North America, especially late in the season, coaches and players have been known to sport more facial hair.
Many avoid shaving their faces because they just don’t feel like it after a long, grueling season. Others grow beards as a superstition to prolong some type of winning streak or other protest.
In the case of New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll, less is more.
This past week, Daboll trimmed his full beard down to a goatee. The Giants then ended their four-game winless streak Sunday night in Washington.
The goatee is staying, says Daboll, who wants to close out the remaining three games of the regular season by securing a playoff berth.
Plus, quarterback Daniel Jones told Daboll he’s stuck with it now.
“Absolutely, unfortunately for everybody else,” Daboll said when asked if he’d keep the goatee. “Not really sure that really makes the difference but change it up. There’s a lot of skin underneath that beard, but so be it.”
What was the reason for the change?
“Well, look, I try to change things up when things aren’t going well. That includes looking like this, which trust me, my wife and daughters, they’re not very happy about that. But I try to do anything for a win. So, it was almost a mustache. I gained about — I don’t know how many pounds — the last couple weeks. So, I kept a little bit of the goatee on there (to) cover up some of the other parts. There’s a lot of parts.”
Sunday night games on the road are tough on everyone, especially coaches. Many get off the plane upon their return and head right back to work.
Daboll said he didn’t do that this time.
“No, I went home. Went home, got a couple hours of sleep. And then we’re back at it. So, Sunday night games, they’re fun that night. The next day, not as much,” Daboll said.
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