New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh did not wait for the Dallas Cowboys to test Malik Nabers' knee on Sunday night. He handled that himself.
Hours before kickoff, with Nabers still a game-time decision after tearing his ACL and meniscus last September, the Giants were milling around before a walkthrough. Dart and Harbaugh had just been talking through the obvious: Once Nabers took a real hit and realized he was fine, the rest would follow.
That thought apparently traveled from the coach's head to his shoulders.
"We're all just standing there, and then all of a sudden Leek goes down on the ground," Dart said. "Our team's super protective of him. So we all turned to look, and it's Coach Harbs tackling Leek, and then he pops up and he goes, 'See,
you're all good.'"
Nabers offered the official protest. Asked if he went down, he smiled and said, "Nah, I didn't go down."
Giants WR Malik Nabers tells me John Harbaugh tackled him during walk through 🤣
— Simone Eli (@SimoneEli_TV) September 14, 2026
“Everybody was worried if I could tackle. Actually Coach Harbaugh tackled me…”
Me: “He tackled you himself?”
“Yeah, he wanted to see if I could take a tackle.”
Me: “Did you go down?”
“Nah I… pic.twitter.com/acHfshAc6e
So either New York's 23-year-old No. 1 receiver stonewalled a 63-year-old former Miami defensive back, or his quarterback just told on him. The disagreement was the funniest part. Nobody treated it like a medical event. It was a coach trying to knock the last ounce of doubt out of a star who had spent the week saying the decision was his alone.
The Giants had planned for the other outcome. They signed Dalen Cambre to the 53-man roster and elevated Braxton Berrios on Saturday in case Nabers arrived Sunday and decided to sit. He prayed through pregame work, felt the building, and stayed in.
Then he played. Six catches, 69 yards, a nine-yard grab on his first target, and a 28-20 win over Dallas in Harbaugh's debut. He had been cleared. He just needed to feel it. One unscheduled tackle, one conflicting eyewitness report, and one productive night later, the uncertainty was the only thing that stayed on the ground.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Shock therapy works: Giants' John Harbaugh tackled Malik Nabers pregame
