The New York Giants hired John Harbaugh as coach on Saturday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced. The sides began working on a contract Wednesday night when it became clear that Harbaugh was the right fit.

Harbaugh joins the Giants 11 days after he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens, who made the playoffs 12 times with him in charge and won the Super Bowl in the 2012 season. They fell short of the postseason this year because of a missed kick at the buzzer in Week 18, leading ownership to make an change and put Harbaugh on the market.

General manager Joe Schoen and the Giants pounced, bringing on a proven winner with significant NFL head-coaching experience. Harbaugh was flown in on co-owner Steve Tisch’s private plane earlier this week, spent several hours at the team facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey, spoke with young quarterback Jaxson Dart and got wined and dined at nearby Elia Mediterranean Restaurant.

With the courting process complete, Harbaugh is now tasked with turning around the beleaguered franchise that has made just two playoff appearances over the past 12 years and not made it past the divisional round. Todd Monken could follow him from Baltimore to be offensive coordinator, unless he takes a head-coaching gig in Cleveland or elsewhere.

Harbaugh got the job over the likes of Kevin Stefanski, Mike McCarthy, Raheem Morris and Antonio Pierce, leapfrogging some of expected front-runners who got shuffled back as soon as the 63-year-old became available. The chance to work for stable ownership and Dart made New York an attractive landing spot over other places such as Tennessee, Atlanta and Miami.

The Giants have talented pieces in place on either side of the ball, including running back Cam Skattebo, receiver Malik Nabers and left tackle Andrew Thomas on offense, plus pass rushers Brian Burns and Abdul Carter and nose tackle Dexter Lawrence on defense. They have the fifth pick in the draft to add to that stockpile.

Changing the culture of losing that has pervaded the Meadowlands for the better part of the last decade is now on Harbaugh’s shoulders. Counting playoff games, the seven coaches who followed 2007 and ’11 Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin have gone 45-105-1, a winning percentage of .300.

Harbaugh is 193-124 in 317 games in the league, a .609 winning percentage, since taking over the Ravens in 2008. He spent the previous 10 seasons as an assistant with Philadelphia, mostly as special teams coordinator and then defensive backs coach.

Schoen, after finding out from Tisch and co-owner John Mara that he was returning for a fifth year as GM, said the search would not be limited to just offensive- or defensive-minded options. While Harbaugh comes from a special teams background, he provides the kind of all-around coaching Schoen was believed to be looking for, along with a championship pedigree and a reputation that should garner him immediate respect within the locker room.

This is Schoen’s second hire after bringing Brian Daboll with him from Buffalo, where both were assistants with the Bills, in January 2022. Ownership fired Daboll on Nov. 10 after the Giants lost eight of the first 10 games in his fourth season as coach.

Mike Kafka coached out the string as the interim replacement after being promoted from offensive coordinator, and the team lost five in a row before winning its final two games to finish with a 4-13 record. Kafka interviewed but was never a serious candidate for the full-time job.

Almost no one was compared with Harbaugh, giving the Giants an off-field win that might be their biggest of any kind in several years.

Udinski interviews with Browns

Jacksonville offensive coordinator Grant Udinski interviewed with the Cleveland Browns for their head coaching vacancy on Saturday.

Udinski, 30, just completed his first season with the Jaguars. Even though coach Liam Coen called the offensive plays, Udinski directed a unit that was sixth in the league in scoring (27.9 points per game) and 11th in total offense (337.4 points per game). Quarterback Trevor Lawrence accounted for 38 touchdowns (29 passing, nine rushing) as Jacksonville went 13-4 in the regular season and won the AFC South for the first time since 2022. The Jaguars lost to Buffalo in the wild card round last Sunday.

Udinski began his NFL career as a coaching assistant at Carolina (2020-21) before spending three seasons in Minnesota (2022-24). He was an assistant to the head coach/special projects in 2022 with the Vikings before being promoted to assistant offensive coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach in 2024.

The Browns are the only team that has conducted or requested an interview with Udinski so far.

Cleveland needs a head coach after it fired Kevin Stefanski on Jan. 5 following six seasons and a 46-58 overall record. Stefanski was a two-time AP NFL Coach of the Year and led the Browns to the playoffs in 2020 and ’23.

The Browns have interviewed nine people, including four this week. Former Miami head coach Mike McDaniel interviewed on Monday while Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase went on Friday.

Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Seattle defensive coordinator Aden Durde, Cincinnati offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher and Baltimore offensive coordinator Todd Monken interviewed last week.

Dolphins interview 4 more candidates

The Miami Dolphins continued their search for a new head coach this week, interviewing four more candidates to potentially replace coach Mike McDaniel.

Over the past few days, the Dolphins have interviewed four defensive coordinators: the Los Angeles Rams’ Chris Shula, Jacksonville’s Anthony Campanile, San Francisco’s Robert Saleh and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jesse Minter.

Minter, who helped the Chargers finish fifth in the league in total defense this season, also interviewed for head coach openings in Atlanta and Cleveland. Baltimore, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Tennessee have also requested interviews.

Saleh is the only one among them with prior head coaching experience, which would be a deviation from the norm for owner Stephen Ross, who has only hired first-time head coaches during his tenure.

Campanile coached Miami’s linebackers from 2020-2023 and has a history with new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. The two worked together when Campanile led Green Bay’s linebackers in 2024. Sullivan spent 22 seasons with the Packers before being hired as Miami’s GM earlier this month.

The Dolphins began an organizational rebuild after going 7-10 this past season. It was their second consecutive losing season, and they missed the playoffs for a second straight year.

Longtime GM Chris Grier was fired in October, and McDaniel was dismissed earlier this month after four seasons.

The Dolphins have also interviewed Green Bay defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, former Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski and Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.

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North Dakota State now sits firmly atop the Summit League Conference, at least for the time being.

That’s the result of the Bison’s 68-65 victory over St. Thomas on Saturday in Fargo in a matchup of the conference’s lone two unbeatens in Summit League play.

The loss snapped St. Thomas’ nine-game winning streak.

Trevian Carson led North Dakota State with 16 points, including four triples. Neither team shot particularly well from the field — both were sub-33% from beyond the arc and sub-70% at the free-throw line.

St. Thomas entered the day shooting 44% from deep in conference play, but was just 10 for 31 on such looks Saturday.

The Bison dominated the glass with 15 offensive rebounds, which turned into nine second-chance points, compared to St. Thomas’ two.

St. Thomas’ Nick Janowski is guarded by North Dakota’s Trevian Anderson and Tay Smith on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in the Scheels Center at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex in Fargo.

North Dakota also had 21 points off turnovers, nine more than the Tommies.

Trailing by nine with fewer than five minutes to play in the opening stanza, the Tommies went on a 14-0 run to take a one-point lead into the half.

North Dakota State (16-5, 6-0 in Summit) was again strong out of the gates in the second half, opening it on a 16-7 run to grab an eight-point lead. But again, St. Thomas responded with an 8-0 run to knot the affair on a triple by Nolan Minessale.

But the Tommies never retook the lead, as an immediate 11-2 North Dakota State response left St. Thomas chasing the rest of the way.

St. Thomas (15-5, 4-1 in Summit) trailed by three in the final minute, when a layup from Bison guard Damari Wheeler-Thomas effectively put the game on ice with 27 seconds to play.

Bison guard Emil Skyttä takes a shot at the rim during North Dakota State’s game against St. Thomas in Fargo, North Dakota on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Zachary Lucy / NDSU Athletics)

Minessale led the Tommies with 16 points and six assists, but struggled from the field and committed seven turnovers. He was one of four St. Thomas players to score in double figures, including Austin Herro, who had 10 points, five rebounds and five dimes, and Isaiah Johnson-Arigu, who added 15 points.

St. Thomas remains in second place in the Summit, as the only one-loss team in conference play. The Tommies will welcome the Bison to St. Paul for the rematch on Feb. 26.

St. Thomas next plays Thursday in St. Paul against South Dakota State.

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Ducking and holding his bleeding head, conservative influencer Jake Lang left the “March Against Minnesota Fraud” protest he organized Saturday afternoon at Minneapolis City Hall with hundreds of counter-protesters following him.

Lang, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida, said on X that thousands of people were coming to Minnesota to march as “Christian Crusaders” supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and calling for the arrest of Gov. Tim Walz. Lang was convicted of assaulting a police officer with a baseball bat in the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and spent four years in a federal jail before he was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

When Lang first tried to make his way through the crowds to get to City Hall on Saturday, two to three men repeatedly punched him and his supporters. Once he was at City Hall, counter-protesters shouted and drowned out his words, threw snowballs at him and sprayed him with water.

Media at the scene reported that less than a dozen supporters for Lang were at the demonstration, while an estimated 2,000 counter-protesters showed up.

Less than an hour after the 1 p.m. protest, Lang, supported by two men holding his arms as he held his head, made his way through the crowd of counter protestors. At least one man punched him in the back of the head as he was escorted into a hotel a few blocks away, according to a video posted to X.

After he ran inside an open door of the hotel, people held up a Quran, the Muslim holy book, that Lang had threatened to burn on the steps of City Hall and the tactical vest he had been wearing.

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For a team that is logging three games in four days, on the road, playing more than 60 minutes in the road trip opener was probably not what the Minnesota Wild had in mind.

But when Mats Zuccarello scored a power play goal in overtime to produce a 5-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon, it at least made the extra work worthwhile.

The Sabres, who had won 16 of their previous 18, rallied from two goals down to take a second period lead, only to see Minnesota refuse to fold. When Buffalo took a hooking penalty in the final seconds of regulation, it gave the Wild a 4-on-3 power play in sudden death, and Zuccarello ended it.

Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman, Vladimir Tarasenko and Quinn Hughes scored in regulation for the Wild, as they snapped a three-game winless streak. Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson had 20 saves in the victory.

“I think none of us liked how the homestand went and I think to be able to get on the road with this group – this is the group that we’re going to have for the road trip – was get to the identity and play the game that gives us the best chance to win,” Wild coach John Hynes said, as his team is missing four veterans currently injured. “And the guys bought into it, they did it, they executed and we found a way to win, which is great.”

Born in Buffalo, Foligno’s father played for the Sabres and Marcus began his NHL career in western New York, so trips to town feel like a homecoming for the family. The Wild winger definitely looked right at home on Saturday, scoring Minnesota’s first goal – his second in as many games – and dropping his gloves, twice, with Sabres defender Michael Kesselring.

Foligno, who has a sister working in the Sabres marketing department and family at the game, said scoring in front of his father, Mike, never gets old.

“I think it’s extra special, especially (since) we both played for this organization,” Foligno said. “So, yeah, I think he’ll have a lot of good things to say tonight.”

The fights came after Kesselring tackled Hughes in the first period, with the Wild leading 1-0. Buffalo tied the game on the same shift, then got a minute of two-man advantage later in the first.

But the Wild’s penalty killers, who are statistically some of the best in the NHL when playing on the road, kept the game tied, and then Hartman scored in the final 10 seconds of the period to give the visitors the lead again. For Hartman, it was his fourth goal in the past six games, and came after Hughes twice eluded Buffalo challengers with spin moves, then sent a pass across the crease for a picture perfect tip-in.

When Tarasenko scored just 68 seconds into the middle frame, then Buffalo took back-to-back penalties, the Wild were in complete control and looking for a three-goal lead. But Buffalo held the Minnesota power play harmless, then grabbed the momentum with two goals 87 seconds apart. The Sabres took the 4-3 lead with a power play goal on the second of back-to-back penalties called on Minnesota.

But before the second period ended, Hughes leaned into a slap shot from the blue line to tie the game once again. It was the second goal for Hughes since he joined the Wild in a mid-December trade with Vancouver.

The Wild pelted Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the second and third periods, but could not get a decisive shot past him until Kaprizov set up Zuccarello for the overtime winner. Luukkonen had 31 saves for the Sabres, who won in a shootout in November, in their only visit to St. Paul this season.

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