Giants fired assistant coach over seating arrangement on team flight?

Former New York Giants assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox. Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Giants reportedly fired assistant coach over seating arrangement on team flight

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Dec 11, 2025 8:28 AM ET

The New York Giants parted ways with assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox during their bye week, and the last straw that led to the decision was a bizarre one.

Cox, an assistant defensive line coach with the Giants since 2022, was fired during the team’s bye week. Dan Duggan of The Athletic reported Wednesday that the last straw was Cox’s reaction to assistant coaches being seated at the back of the team plane on the flight home from the team’s 33-15 loss to the New England Patriots on Dec. 1. Typically, assistant coaches had sat near the front of the plane.

Mike Kafka again declined to share any details on what led to the firing of assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox during the bye week.

Sources say the final straw was Cox’s reaction to the seating arrangement being changed on the flight home from the Patriots game. The…
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) December 10, 2025

Duggan noted that Cox was close with former head coach Brian Daboll, so there was already tension behind-the-scenes stemming from Daboll’s firing earlier this season. It was unclear why this specific situation escalated further, and interim coach Mike Kafka declined to answer questions about it on Wednesday.

This latest headline is another awkward one in what has been a very messy season for the Giants. The team currently sits at 2-11, with many of those losses coming via blown leads or close defeats. The fact that some frustration is boiling over is understandable. Few would have expected a seating arrangement on a team flight to be the trigger for it, though.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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