Jaxson Dart’s Dad Enters Full Helicopter Parent Mode In War Of Words With Former Giants QB

We have ourselves a good ol' fashioned war of words between former NFL quarterback turned analyst, Danny Kanell, and Brandon Dart, the father of New York Giants signal-caller Jaxson Dart. While Kanell may have technically started the scuffle, it was Dart's old man who took things from zero to one-hundred in a hurry.

Things officially kicked off between the two on Sunday after the Giants beat the Las Vegas Raiders, 34-10. While reacting to the contest and Dart's play, Kanell explained that he was on the fence about whether or not the rookie was "the long-term answer for the Giants."

"When I think of a first-round draft pick, I think it’s somebody that you should picture for 10 to 12 years as gonna be your guy. I still haven’t seen development as a passer. He still is running the football, and they’re designing runs for him. But I wanna see him take that next step as a passer, and I just haven’t seen it yet," Kanell said while on-air with CBS.

It's an innocent take from Kanell, and one that plenty of others in the NFL world undoubtedly share, but Dart's dad didn't appreciate it and reacted to the moment by telling Kanell to "eat a fat one." Seriously.

Now look, we're all about a father sticking up for their child, but for the dad of the starting quarterback of the New York Giants to publicly react to an analyst delivering a very tame take about their son that way is about as unprofessional as it gets. It's also worth remembering that Kanell played six seasons in the NFL and was the starting quarterback for the Giants in 1997; he's not just a talking head with no experience on a football field.

While Kanell could have ignored the crude remark from Dart's dad, he fully leaned into it the following day. You can't necessarily blame him, either. If Jaxson Dart's dad comes at you, it's good for business to keep the battle going.

"We got a big fat one lined up for ya," Kanell said during the introduction on VT Sports on Monday. He then went on to call it as he sees it, which is that Dart's dad messing with his grown-adult son's business is a red flag.

"He’s shown some flashes. But this is actually a big red flag for me," Kanell said. "I don’t know why you’re messing and meddling in your son’s business. He’s been online before, calling out officials, calling out other analysts and it brings more attention to you than it does your son and it’s negative attention by calling out anybody in the media. I’m a nobody in the media. Why are you attacking me? I get supporting your son, but bringing this on you. There’s going to be a lot of people — it doesn’t bother me. I don’t care. I get it. But as a dad, this reeks of helicopter dad, who has been involved and it’s been pretty well documented how involved he’s been in his son’s life.

"Just let him go be him. You don’t have to come to your son’s rescue. You don’t have to defend him. Let his play do the talking and it will all be fine. You can keep receipts. You can hold on to everything. But this, to me, doesn’t do Jaxson Dart any favors because you’re just making a target on his back for any critics."

Dart has shown several flashes during his rookie campaign in New York, having accounted for 22 total touchdowns in 13 games. He's done the majority of his work without Malik Nabers on the field as well, but will undoubtedly have to take a step forward next season if the G-Men want to start climbing out of the basement of the league.