Ronnie Barnes’ first season as Giants head athletic trainer was the first year of the Ronald Reagan administration.
His last was the end of the Brian Daboll era.
Barnes, 73, will remain with the Giants in an oversight role as senior vice president of medical services but is stepping away from the responsibilities as head trainer, sources confirmed to The Post.
It is not an emeritus role, and Barnes still will be in charge of the department.
It is expected that new head coach John Harbaugh will bring in a head trainer with ties to the Ravens.
Director of rehabilitation Leigh Weiss had taken on a larger role in on-field injury management in recent years.
Generations of players through the current roster have sworn by the medical care and injury management provided by Barnes despite various injury studies showing that the Giants have lost more games to injury over the last decade or so than most other franchises.
Not only is Barnes the longest-tenured non-family member within the Giants organization but one of the longest in any NFL franchise.
He led the Giants’ compliance through the 2020 and 2021 COVID-19-impacted seasons.
The timing of the change feeds into the narrative that Harbaugh is making sweeping changes to the old guard of the Giants.
Longtime executive Kevin Abrams – a salary-cap expert who rose through the ranks over 26 years and was seen as an heir to the general manager chair before the Dave Gettleman era went off the rails in 2021 – was let go Wednesday.
Barnes was looking to transition into more of an oversight role in recent years and the timing matched up. Barnes first joined the Giants in 1976 and was promoted to head athletic trainer in 1981.
He served as head athletic trainer for 12 of the 23 head coaches (interims included) in Giants history – from Ray Perkins to Daboll replacement Mike Kafka – and for five general managers.
Barnes is a member of the Giants’ Ring of Honor and the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame, and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Fritz Pollard Alliance to promote diversity hirings in the NFL.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
