Steve Serby takes some time to chat with the Giants’ new general manager, Dave Gettleman, who will have to dig Big Blue out of a 3-13 hole:

Q: What would you tell Giants players about what it means to be a New York Giant?

A: I’d tell ’em: “You gotta understand: You’re playing for a flagship NFL franchise. You’re representing a tradition of winning, a tradition of Super Bowls. You’ve gotta live up to that. This isn’t just some place. And you gotta understand that right now.”

Q: What was your view of the infamous “boat trip” the week before the playoff game in Green Bay last January?

A: It’s not a good look. Who’s kidding who? Just like when [Tony] Romo and [Jason] Witten took off somewhere in [Cabo] that year. It’s not a good look.

Q: So you would be opposed to something like that?

A: Yes. Guys forget: There’s no guarantee you get in the playoffs every year. Ain’t no guarantee now! There’s no guarantee in this game.

Q: Do you have a philosophy on players tweeting?

A: To me, in life, everybody should put themselves in a position to succeed. Tweeting puts you in a position to fail. Because we’ve become such a PC world. Whatever you tweet? You’re gonna piss somebody off.

Q: You would urge caution.

A: Exactly.

Q: Your reaction to Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen declaring for the draft?

A: It just deepens the pool.

Q: Could it impact Eli Manning in any way?

Q: Who knows?

Q: How did your meeting go Wednesday with Eli Apple?

A: It went fine. We talked. He was very attentive. He was focused. He couldn’t be at Monday’s team meeting, so I went through the points that I made to the team with him.

Q: Are you optimistic that his career can be salvaged?

A: Time will tell. I told him he’s got a clean slate for me. Let’s move forward, let’s see what happens.

Q: On your head-coach priority list, how important is the ability to develop a young quarterback?

A: It’s really important. You draft a quarterback high, and you’re wrong? It sets you back, because then what happens, there are teams that I call, they’re in quarterback hell. They got solid defense, they’ve got a pretty good offensive line, they got some skill players. They … just … can’t … find the trigger guy. And what happens is they go 7-9, 8-8, 9-7, and they never get high enough to get a real guy, and they’re afraid to trade up and trade the farm to get a guy because they’re [No.] 18, 19, 20 draft position. I call that quarterback hell.

Q: Are you looking for a kick-ass coach?

A: I want a coach that has a toughness about him. There’s a number of ways to be tough. I’ve seen quiet tough guys, and the players know he’s nobody to fool with. He says, “Jump,” we’re jumping. It’s like I tell people — you have a message? It’s about your delivery. Some people just deliver messages differently.

Q: Describe five traits of a Dave Gettleman football player.

A: Hates to lose, instinctive, very smart, team guy, just a high-character guy off the field.

Q: Luke Kuechly would be close, right?

A: He’d be one of the guys.

Q: What are the most important qualities you look for in a franchise quarterback?

A: The obvious is the physical ability to do it, but it’s beyond that. It’s the leadership. It’s knowing how to rally the troops. It’s gotta be smarts. Head coach is a CEO, I gotta be a CEO, to a certain degree the quarterback’s gotta be a CEO. Put it in relatable terms — he’s gotta be a guy that if there’s a burning building and he says, “Let’s go,” he gets trampled.

Q: Do you have any size prototypes for a quarterback?

A: Who doesn’t want Cam Newton? Who doesn’t want that size prototype? You know, 6-[foot]-5, 245 [pounds], run a 4.5 [40-yard dash] — who the heck doesn’t want that? With the shorter guys — [Drew] Brees, Russell Wilson — their ability to slide and find the passing lane, that allows them to overcome the height issue. When you’re playing those guys, what you want to do is get inside pressure immediately, to not allow them to step up. Who doesn’t want a guy who’s a little bigger? It’s more about does he have the “it” factor? Is he a winner? Just because they go to the next level, it doesn’t necessarily stop. Some people are just winners.

Q: What drives you?

A: I want to win. You know that Vince Lombardi quote — I can’t remember it exactly, but giving it your all and lying exhausted victorious on the floor. And that doesn’t mean I’m a crazy man, and I get mad if I lose at cards. It’s just a professional thing, I’m driven to be the best at what I do.

Q: Any other quotes you like?

A: I get this from “All in the Family”: “Every man is my equal in that I may learn from it.” Another one I really believe in: “Arrogance suffocates intelligence.”

Q: Leaders you admire?

A: [World Vision president] Richard Stearns. He was a CEO making a large sum of money, and he walked away to World Vision to make the world better … to help people. I really admire [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. I admire his courage and conviction.

Q: What is your favorite Wellington Mara memory?

A: It was the Justin Tuck draft [in 2005]. He had an injury, he was hurt his last year in college. We turn around and Jerry [Reese, former GM] said, “Man, I’d love to take this guy in the third round. I’d love it if this guy was in the third round.” Third round comes, we’re talking about some players, and Justin’s one of ’em. And Wellington leaned forward and said, “We discussed this already. We said we’d be thrilled if he was here in the third round. Why are we talking about it?”

Q: How would you sum up Wellington?

A: He had a presence about him. He had a stately presence. Didn’t talk a lot, and I don’t know if he was more talkative early in his life. … But when he said something, it made you say, “Whoa.”

Q: How did it feel to hold the Lombardi Trophy?

A: I’ll tell you a quick story. So I’m working for the Broncos. We beat Green Bay in San Diego [in Super Bowl XXXII]. We’re [an 11-point] underdog and everybody thought we were gonna get our fannies kicked. By the middle of the second quarter we knew we had ’em, because they were gassed. But the game ends, and I looked at my wife and I said: “It doesn’t validate you as a person. It validates you as a professional.” It’s no different than you winning a Pulitzer Prize. Just imagine you won the Pulitzer Prize.

Q: Where were you when Buffalo’s Scott Norwood missed wide right against the Giants in Super Bowl XXV?

A: Aw, gosh. You’re breaking my heart! All right, so here’s what happens. I’m sitting on the 30-yard line. Remember — Buffalo Bills, Giants. Everybody’s in the same colors — red, white and blue. So, it’s one of those deals where we’re getting ready for the kick. I turn to [my wife] Joanne and Scotty, bless his heart, was not a good grass guy, and he was at the outside edge of his range, at that point in his career. And I said to Joanne, I said, “Honey, all I care is that he gives it a chance. That’s all I care about.” So as soon as he hit it, you knew it was long enough, I mean, he boomed it. But then, the angle we’re at, everybody in the end zone jumps up, you don’t know who’s who. Anybody who tells me they knew it was wide right who was standing on either side of me, I’d tell ’em he was full of crap. It was hard now. Now of course the next day I’m in the hotel and they show the end zone shot, he was 6 feet wide.

Q: Describe the pain of losing the Super Bowl.

A: When I went to my first Super Bowl in Buffalo, which was against the Giants, Bob Ferguson looked at me and said, “Getto, this is the one game you don’t want to lose. It’s painful.” I’ve lost four, two have been blowouts. The second Buffalo game, the first Giant one in 2000, Baltimore blew us out. Losing that one to the Giants, and then losing in ’15 [with Carolina]. It hurts. Just imagine being up in the air … a helium balloon goes floating along, and everything’s great and all of a sudden, you hear a shot and you got a hole in the balloon.

Q: You can pick the brain of one coach and one general manager in history, who would it be?

A: Coach would probably be Bill Walsh.

Q: How about general manager?

A: Probably George Young.

Q: Why Bill Walsh?

A: He was way ahead of his time. His book “The Winning Edge” was spectacular. He had so many things figured out and people can turn around and say, “Yeah, he had the benefit, he wasn’t dealing with the salary cap.” But for him to have the courage to tell Joe Montana it was time, and Ronnie Lott it was time, and Jerry Rice it was time — some great players that it was time, to have the courage to make those changes when he did, the Branch Rickey concept — better a year early than a year late.

Q: Why George Young?

A: Ernie [Accorsi] tells George Young stories all the time, and I knew George, may he rest in peace, but only had one or two opportunities to really talk to him. He just had a unique way of looking at things and boiling it down to get to the point.

Q: What’s happening at the 2004 draft as the Giants are on the clock?

A: At that point in time, I’m handling the trade phone, I always did when I was here. Eli [Manning] gets taken, and our pick’s coming up, and I had no idea what was going on. I hear, “And the Giants select Philip Rivers.” And I said to myself, “I gotta believe there’s something going on.” Then of course the trade’s announced. It made perfect sense.

Q: Where were you at the time?

A: I was in my office. My office was not in the draft room.

Q: And what was your reaction when Ernie pulled off the trade?

A: The man knew what he wanted, who he wanted. There’s an old saying in the draft: “If you want a guy, go get him!” … Don’t be shy. And it’s not about perception of what’s outside, or you paid too much for him, you did this, you did that — no. It’s all about your football team. I just said to myself, “Wow.” ‘Cause I had watched a few games on Eli just to watch. His wide receivers, I don’t think any of them broke 4.65 [in the 40]. He had a little peanut of a running back who was a quick little kid. And somehow, they’re winning games. Someone in the SEC had a great team, and Ole Miss had ’em beat. And defense couldn’t hold ’em, so — you knew he was a winner.

Q: Your emotions when the Panthers let you go?

A: I was just disappointed. You want to complete the task.

Q: Did you worry or fear that might have been your last opportunity?

A: No, I wasn’t worried, and I’ll tell you why: I’ve got a very strong faith, and if that was gonna be it for me, I was OK. I’m not an arrogant guy, you know that. If you look at my career, I had done everything a guy could do except for having my name on the Lombardi Trophy as the GM. That’s it.

Q: Does that drive you now?

A: Winning drives me. Putting together an organization that can have sustained success. Something that when I walk out the door … what drives me is leaving something better than when I found it.

Q: What are some coaches and general managers in other sports you admire?

A: Gregg Popovich, he’s fascinating. I can’t help myself — Terry Francona, from when he was with the Red Sox. I can’t help myself, I’m sorry, I thought he did an unbelievable job, and look at what he’s done in Cleveland, and they’re not a big-spending team. General managers? Lou Lamoriello.

Q: Athletes in other sports you admire?

A: Bobby Orr. I read his autobiography. I was on the Cape last year and I grabbed it. It’s amazing.

Q: How often did you see him play in person?

A: I saw him a number of times. That was in the old [Boston] Garden. And my dad had a customer — he was the general manager of a pretty good-sized oil company — he had a customer that had season tickets, up in the heavens. The fourth row. In the old Garden, you’re in the fourth row, the puck was in front of you, you couldn’t see. You had to stand up, even only in the fourth row.

Q: Any others?

A: I’m gonna go all Boston on ya: Bill Russell, and might be Mickey Mantle. He was such a tremendous athlete. He had no knees when he was 26, yet …

Q: But you rooted against him, right?

A: Absolutely!

Q: In 25 words or less, describe Ernie Accorsi?

A: Taught me so much about leadership, and big-picture thinking, and just the nuts and bolts of building a team.

Q: Tom Coughlin?

A: The dogged determination and drive to get it done.

Q: Bill Polian?

A: Just the way he took me in my first years in the league, and the way he shared information with me and was willing to teach me.

Q: Marv Levy?

A: The intelligence factor. Marv was three, four moves ahead of everybody.

Q: [Former Bills executive] Bob Ferguson.

A: He taught me how to evaluate and grade players.

Q: Why is your wife the best draft pick you ever made?

A: Bottom line is she’s my best friend. She’s strong, and she shoots me straight. She’s gonna let me know if my head gets big or whatever, and she’s gonna let me know if I’m not living up to my end of the bargain. She’s the best.

Q: Why did your mother-in-law mean so much to you?

A: She was a wonderful woman, she was very bright, really interesting to talk to. She said to Joanne one time, “You know what you’re getting with David.” In that, “He is who he is, and that’s a good thing.” She was just a great woman.

Q: Favorite memory at Spackenkill High School?

A: Oh my gosh. Winning that first championship, probably.

Q: When you played offensive tackle at Springfield College, was there a tackle you admired?

A: Jim Parker.

Q: Boyhood idol?

A: My father. He was a mensch.

Q: Favorite New York City things?

A: You feel the excitement, you feel the vibrancy of the city. I love that.

Q: Four dinner guests?

A: Jesus, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Ted Williams.

Q: What would you ask Truman?

A: How’d you feel when you realized the enormity of the situation you were dropped into, and make a decision to drop the bomb?

Q: What would you ask Churchill?

A: I’d talk to him about how he held together England and London during the early stages of World War II.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: “Schindler’s List.”

Q: Favorite actor?

A: Dustin Hoffman.

Q: Favorite actress?

A: Meryl Streep.

Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?

A: Tony Bennett.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: As you can tell, there’s many. My wife’s homemade pasta. I love angel hair, and she makes a great sauce.

Q: Why is it important for you to have the New York Giants feared again?

A: I just believe in the Giant Way. I just want it back where it belongs.

Q: Your message to Giants fans?

A: We’re gonna fix this.