It never did sit right with Giants fans, former players and ownership when Bill Parcells hitched his star to Jerry Jones’ Cowboys. The Giants dodged a bullet when Parcells failed to win his third Super Bowl there and left after four seasons.

Mike McCarthy interviewing with the Giants and winding up in Jones’ arms on Monday won’t cause Giants fans the same amount of horror or consternation, and it is unlikely to compel them to dial up their shrink.

But it absolutely adds a layer of intrigue and ups the ante for John Mara, Steve Tisch, Dave Gettleman and anyone else involved in the most critical coaching search the Giants have conducted in a long, long time.

Since Parcells left the Giants following Super Bowl XXV, the club has hired six head coaches — and three of them lasted two years or fewer.


This is no time for their next head coach to be the fourth.

Gettleman isn’t the only one who desperately needs a better batting average.

There is only one team in the NFC East that does not have a head coach with a Super Bowl appearance on his résumé:

The New York Football Giants.

McCarthy won Super Bowl XLV. Doug Pederson won Super Bowl XLII. Ron Rivera got to Super Bowl 50 and lost to Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

The Giants were wrong on Ben McAdoo.

They were wrong on Pat Shurmur.

A message to the Giants brass: Don’t dare be wrong now.

No one is asking or should expect Matt Rhule — if he gets the job — or anyone else to magically transform the Giants into a Super Bowl contender.

Hiring a leader of men and a young quarterback and a man of vision driven to restore Giants pride would be a good place — the only place — to start.

Gettleman is willing to cede personnel power, and should. There can be no deal-breakers here now. A year ago, the Jets objected to Rhule’s desired assistants and hired Adam Gase. Rhule rules now if he is offered the job.

If indeed Rhule, who would come with Tom Coughlin’s seal of approval, is the apple of their eye, the Giants must get their man.

Remember, McCarthy inherits a ready-made Super Bowl contender.

If the Giants were a rock band, they’d be Question Mark and the Mysterians.

The next head coach has to light a fire under the entire team — especially the sad-sack defense that has disgraced the tradition — and develop Daniel Jones into his Eli Manning.

With the Giants, Parcells had to bang heads with Joe Gibbs from 1983-90, Buddy Ryan from 1986-90, Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson from 1983-90.

Coughlin had to battle Parcells from 2004-06, Joe Gibbs from 2004-07 and Andy Reid from 2004-12.

The trick is to find a CEO head coach who won’t flinch. Someone who commands the room. McAdoo and Shurmur weren’t presidents; they were vice presidents.

Everyone wants the adult in the room, but the adult in the room better know how to motivate and win, or he becomes the former adult in the room.

With the possible exception of 1979, when George Young hired Ray Perkins in the wake of The Fumble, and in the wake of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle instructing him to pick the Giants off the canvas following the Mara Family Feud, this is the franchise’s most critical hire.

Giants fans have been pulling their hair out since Super Bowl XLVI. They are pleading for a young Parcells, a young Coughlin.

McCarthy liked what Jerry Jones had to say more than he liked what the Giants had to say. And so now the next Giants head coach will have to deal with McCarthy twice a year (and his defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan). And Rivera twice a year. And Pederson twice a year.

All of them were hotshot assistants once. Never any guarantees, that has been well-documented over the years all across the NFL. Because you just never know for sure.

Gettleman vowed to kick ass when he arrived. We’re still waiting. In the meantime, it is incumbent upon the Giants to hire a kick-ass head coach.

And when they get him in the building, make sure he doesn’t leave. Fly Lawrence Taylor to sack him if he so much as tries to leave.

Coughlin turned the Giants down in 1993 to remain at Boston College, and then Dave Wannstedt turned them down for the Bears head coach job. That led the Giants to Dan Reeves. “I was my mother’s third choice,” Reeves cracked, “and I don’t feel like I was any less loved. The important thing is I was their last choice.”

On the day they introduced Reeves, Young said: “I said I wanted a man who was organized, enthusiastic, committed, dedicated, could discipline players, with the desire to rise above the pack,” he said.

A timely want ad, indeed.

Jerry Jones made McCarthy an offer — a five-year offer — he could not refuse.

The Giants need to make their first choice an offer he can’t refuse.

It’s time to get one right, gentlemen.

Ref;nypost.com