NEW YORK — Hiring John Harbaugh doesn’t guarantee the New York Giants will win another Super Bowl soon or even turn themselves around in 2026.

But what Harbaugh did on Tuesday was offer hope that he can make this a competent, football-first operation again.

The words he used most in his first official day on the job were “work,” “team” and “football.”

He set the expectations for his tenure no lower than a Super Bowl. He wasn’t afraid to make that the barometer for his hiring.

“We’re here with one mission: to become, to earn the right to be called the world champions in New York,” he said. “And that’s what we plan to do.”

He also said players who do not love football will have no place on this team — meaning Harbaugh doesn’t have any time for anything that distracts from that daily priority and focus.

“If there’s guys around that don’t love football, Joe, we’re probably going to let those guys go play someplace else,” Harbaugh said, nodding at GM Joe Schoen below in the audience.

Schoen, who will defer to Harbaugh in personnel for as long as he continues working here, said Harbaugh likes “big players” coming from the AFC North. And Harbaugh refreshingly noted a difference between a player’s name on a roster and how he plays on the field.

“I see a lot of really good players when I look at the roster. Well, not the roster so much as the tape,” he said. “That’s where you look: you look at the tape. That’s what shows you, right, guys? It shows you. It’s on the tape.”

These are encouraging statements, because Harbaugh is offering hope that the Giants might actually become a meritocracy as a football team.

In other words, the players who play the best and pour the most into it will make the team, play the most and represent the Giants most prominently.

Decisions won’t be made because of optics — because of how a player’s release or benching makes a GM or position coach look.

Certain players won’t receive favoritism over others because the head coach is afraid to confront them or wants to be their friend.

The Giants will make decisions based on results, based on the football-related habits that players demonstrate every day, based on what is best for the group.

“It will always, always be all about the team,” Harbaugh said. “The team, the team, the team.”

Not that Harbaugh is guaranteed to get everything right. Changing the Giants’ culture, restoring leadership to their locker room and instilling higher expectations into the building will be no easy task.

Especially with such a young group of players, especially Malik Nabers and Abdul Carter, who will be in for a rude awakening if they choose to try to do things their way instead of Harbaugh’s way.

Acting ownership voice Chris Mara, though, said something that resonated about why the Giants knew Harbaugh was the right coach for them.

“I have a book with every offense, every defensive coordinator in there,” Mara said. “I read through every one of them. And every time I read through them all, I said, ‘Who are these guys?’ We knew who John Harbaugh was. We had tried the other way before many times. It just didn’t work out for one reason or the other. And we needed credibility, and he was it.”

Granted, that quote won’t age well if the Cleveland Browns hire Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and go back to the playoffs next fall, for example.

Mara’s point, though, is that the Giants have fallen far enough that they needed to restore a baseline of competence to their entire football operation.

This was about seeking stability and reliability, with the upside of Harbaugh having lifted one Lombardi Trophy already.

Harbaugh no doubt has a ton of work to do to deliver on the promise he offered Tuesday.

He will bring noticeable changes to the Giants’ roster, to various departments in the building, to the Giants’ facilities themselves and to their coaching staff.

He will undoubtedly try to gain control of the message coming out of what a couple NFL sources called the “leakiest” building in the league this past week.

But those all will be positive changes for the Giants’ overall operation, even if the process is terribly uncomfortable in the short term.

Because what the Giants needed to do was bring in a coach that talked to his players like Harbaugh did through the media on Tuesday:

“What you can decide on is how are you going to play?” Harbaugh said. “How hard am I going to play? How physical am I going to play? How much am I going to be locked into my assignment to try to do things the right way? My footwork, my technique, try to win my battle.

“Am I wanting to finish the play?” he continued. “Am I going to run all the way to the ball and then arrive there with a real bad attitude and make a statement when I get there? Am I willing to do that every single play? I’ll have to decide, ‘Oh, maybe he’ll make the tackle. I don’t have to run over there.’ No, no. You put your foot in the ground and you start running.”

And what the Giants needed was a coach who is direct, and who is attacking the expectations of his five-year, $100 million contract head on: To win, and to expect to do so immediately in 2026.

“Absolutely we can do that, and that’s our plan to do that,” Harbaugh said. “The plan is to win every game. I mean, one game at a time. You go into every game planning to win that game. That’s our expectation. We will be expecting to do that. But we’ve got to earn the right to expect that by how we go to work and prepare and what kind of a team that we make ourselves into.”

Work. That’s what Harbaugh promised as the foundation of his version of the Giants. And that is promising.

Because what it means is that next fall, after the Giants play a game on a Sunday, win or lose, just maybe the Giants’ fans will be able to wake up Monday and talk about the football.

And only the football. And what’s going well, and what can improve, to get the Giants back to where they need to be.

Sure, chasing Super Bowls.

But first, being relevant. Being competent. Being a football team that commands respect.

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