Wink Martindale throws apparent shade at the New York Giants

Wink Martindale and the New York Giants agreed to part ways after he spent two seasons as the Giants’ defensive coordinator. Martindale spent 20 seasons coaching in the NFL at different places, and after a successful first year with New York, the Giants dropped in Year 2 with Martindale and went searching for something different.

Michigan found success with Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter who were both with the Baltimore Ravens — both coached under Martindale with Baltimore — so the Wolverines went back to the NFL tree and agreed to bring Martindale to the Michigan Wolverines.

During Martindale’s media session on Wednesday, he was asked if he thought he would want to stay in college for the long haul or look to get back into the NFL. He acknowledged he hasn’t overly thought about it, but he also chose to throw an apparent dig at his previous NFL stop.

“Sure. I haven’t sat down and thought about the long haul,” Martindale said. “When you’re 61, you just try to think about tomorrow. I’m glad that I’m here. I love the players that we have. It’s obviously a different game, but it’s a lot better than being in some places that are 2-7.”

Who might be 2-7, if you ask? The New York Giants.

The last time Martindale coached in college football was back in 2003 with Western Kentucky. The landscape of college football is completey different. One being Name, Image, or Likeness. Martindale was asked about NIL and how he goes about talking to recruits about it.

“That would be a question for all the position coaches, really. I’m sort of like the closer, right? 

“When they start talking money, I just say, ‘Yeah, we’ll get to that, and I know nothing about it.’ But let’s make no mistake: I do know this, just from listening, when someone says money’s not important — money’s important. And it’s important to all of us. Look, it’s important to all of us.

“That’s just where we’re at, where you can have a guy who’s sixth on your list, and a school that has no business competing with a Big Ten school — I’m not just saying Michigan, a Big Ten school — can come in and grab him because they’re looking at that guy as their top guy to get. Does that make sense? Where you’re saying this is our sixth guy, there’s no way we can go that high, but it ends up everybody gets that high. It just keeps escalating.

“I think it’s unsustainable, where we’re at right now, and I don’t know how long it’ll last. So, that’s when I start thinking about, who asked me about long term? That’s where I start thinking about that.”

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