NEW YORK — April 6 can’t get here soon enough for the New York Giants.

That’s the day that John Harbaugh’s spring program begins as a first-year head coach with his new team.

That’s the day he can begin establishing the new culture and set of expectations for his group in person.

That’s when the new version of the Giants truly will begin to form.

That is when Harbaugh will be able to crystallize for players like Cam Skattebo that football is the priority, and any outside nonsense that distracts from the goal of winning games is not going to be tolerated anymore.

Skattebo, 24, is not the first person to put his foot in his mouth. But his comments about asthma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive brain disorder caused by repeated head injuries, were tasteless.

Asked on the “Bring the Juice with Frank Dalena” podcast whether CTE is real, Skattebo said: “No. It’s an excuse.” The host then suggested that asthma is an excuse, too. Skattebo said asthma is “fake” and said that people who have the condition should just “breathe air.”

Someone got to Skattebo quickly, because it didn’t take long for him to issue an extensive apology on social media.

“I recently did an interview and had a lapse in judgment, which resulted in making a tasteless joke about CTE and asthma,” Skattebo said in the statement. “It was never my intention to downplay the seriousness of head trauma or asthma. I sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by my remarks, and I assure you that I’ll be more mindful and respectful going forward.”

The bigger picture here, though, is that the Giants hired Harbaugh so the team and organization would stop being a sideshow. And that must start now.

Jaxson Dart and Skattebo reached celebrity media status quickly despite the Giants going 4-13 during their rookie seasons. Skattebo has played eight total games in the NFL. And yet he is popping off unchecked on sensitive topics with insights that are requiring apologies.

The Giants need a hierarchy, a leadership group of veterans that upholds a standard, one voice from the head coach on down that does not tolerate rookies, second-year players and guys not on the field putting the rest of the group in the public eye for the wrong reasons.

The Giants also should want to distance themselves from this head injury conversation, not lean into it.

Dart’s four trips to the blue tent during his rookie season, his diagnosed midseason concussion, a leak to ESPN about the Giants’ concerns with Dart’s style of play and the mishandling of his head injury in Chicago put a bright spotlight on the Giants QB’s style of play and future.

Former head coach Brian Daboll’s charge to the medical tent and behavior towards one of the Giants’ doctors also embarrassed the team.

Dart grew understandably frustrated with that public focus. He and the Giants would like the focus to be on the football. On Dart’s promising football. On the Giants’ football.

No one begrudges Skattebo for his budding media career. Especially after suffering such a catastrophic leg injury, he has to be thinking about his second professional career already. And he is clearly off to big things in the streaming world regardless of how it works out for him on the field.

As long as he is part of the Giants, however, this Harbaugh version of the Giants, there needs to be consequences and more accountability to set a different tone for how the Giants will represent themselves.

This is part of the reason Harbaugh is starting off training camp in West Virginia in July: To reinforce the focus on football only, on this group, on this team.

He can still use April 6 in East Rutherford, N.J., though, to send that same message immediately — and loud and clear.

OBJ: Playing with Dart 'Sounds great'

Odell Beckham Jr. hasn’t played an NFL game since 2024 with the Miami Dolphins. But Beckham, 33, said at the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic this past weekend that he’s hoping to make a comeback — and he wouldn’t mind it being in New York.

“Looking forward to hopefully getting an opportunity to play this year, and hopefully, this is kinda just a starting point,” Beckham Jr. told FanDuel TV’s Kay Adams in an interview ahead of the event.

Asked about the possibility of playing with Dart and returning to the Giants, Beckham said: “That sounds great. If that opportunity presents itself, I would love to do that. [I’d] be excited about that.”

OBJ then promptly made one of his trademarked, highlight reel, one-handed catches in the flag football classic. It will be interesting to see if Beckham gets one more chance to play and if it happens, even in an emeritus role, with the team where he became a star.

Carter changes to No. 3

Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter is changing from jersey No. 51 to No. 3. Russell Wilson wore that number last season as the Giants’ Week 1 starting quarterback and lasted only three games before being replaced by the rookie first-round pick Dart.

Carter wore No. 22 at LaSalle (Pa.) in high school and No. 11 at Penn State in college. He sought Lawrence Taylor’s No. 56 jersey number and Phil Simms’ No. 11 when he entered as a rookie before accepting 51.

He disappointed early in his rookie season and had to be disciplined by interim head coach Mike Kafka for bad habits once Daboll was fired. But he finished the season with a better attitude. Now he has a new number and hopefully that means a different kind of start to his second pro season.

Tisch valuation has Giants near $11B

The proposed transfer of equity in the Giants’ franchise held by Steve Tisch, Jonathan Tisch and Laurie Tisch to their children values the franchise at $10.8 billion, per Mike Ozanian of CNBC and the Sports Business Journal. The proposed transfer involves 23.1% of the team. Under that valuation, the specific number applied to the Tisch shares being shifted to their children is $2.5 billion.

Tisch will be under the microscope at next weekend’s NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix as this final transfer coincides with his documented association with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Giants’ claim that Tisch’s role in the franchise will remain “status quo.”

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