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It took two seasons for the tensions to finally bubble over.
Giants coordinator Wink Martindale parted ways with the team this week after a fiery meeting with head coach Brian Daboll following a lackluster second year together.
Martindale, reportedly upset over the firing of assistants Kevin and Drew Wilkins, stormed out after delivering a “f–k you” to Daboll, The Post’s Paul Schwartz reported.
It was the culmination of a season filled with rumors swirling over their partnership as they fell from playoff contender to NFC East also-rans.
A large part of their falling out was due to Daboll’s hot-tempered game day demeanor, which clashed with Martindale’s calm approach on the sidelines, team sources told The Athletic.
“On game day, he’s a madman. It’s just brutal,” the source said of Daboll, with another adding: “It’s to the point where you’ve got to take your headsets off or take one ear off. He’s just constantly screaming. It’s like, ‘Jeez, I can’t even think.’”
Martindale, however, wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers away from the sidelines.
“Wink would just walk in (to a coaches’ meeting) and say something like, ‘When such and such did this, I stayed calm. I just went onto the next play,’” a team source said. “He’d throw stuff out there and see if he could get (Daboll) riled up. Dabes knows it. Dabes isn’t stupid. It would just float on by in the meeting, and nobody would say anything.”
Daboll was not happy with Martindale’s public criticism of Xavier McKinney after the safety complained about communication with the defensive staff following a 30-6 loss to the Raiders on Nov. 5.
Later that month, rumors of the growing rift between them became public before the Nov. 26 win over the Patriots, when Fox Sports reported Daboll and Martindale were in a “bad place,” though the team downplayed the notion.
After the game — a 10-7 win — Daboll presented Martindale with the game ball and then confronted Martindale in private about the report twice, with no explanation was given.
Daboll also went into a meeting of the defensive staff and asked anyone who had a problem with speak up.
No one took the opportunity.
The clock, however, was already ticking — even if Giants players didn’t see it until after Martindale was spotted Tuesday at Newark Liberty International Airport boarding a flight to Sarasota, Fla., not long after his expletive-laden meeting with Daboll.
“Maybe they can win an Oscar,” cornerback Adoree Jackson told WFAN on Tuesday. “If there was a problem, they did a good job acting and showing that there wasn’t one.”
On Sunday, the Giants beat the rival Eagles to finish a disappointing 6-11 season.
On Monday, Daboll fired special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and the Wilkins brothers, leading the Martindale’s expletive-laden meeting and an unofficial resignation that became an official split Wednesday.
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