New coach Joe Judge gets a chance to express his vision to Giants fans
Patriots special teams coach Joe Judge watches the action during theAFC Championship Game against the Jaguars on Jan. 21, 2018 in Foxboro, Mass. Credit: AP/Jim Mahoney
Joe Judge will have a chance to answer the biggest question Giants fans have at an introductory news conference for the Giants’ newly signed head coach.
The question: Who the heck is Joe Judge?!
A little-known special teams coach who had toiled in anonymity on Bill Belichick’s staff since 2012 — and for three years before that with Nick Saban at Alabama — Judge gets to present himself to an understandably curious — and skeptical — Giants following. Although his overall body of work will be the deciding factor in whether he recaptures the glory this franchise once knew, this is an important moment for the 38-year-old coach.
After all, you know what they say about first impressions: You never get a second chance to make one.
Judge’s performance in front of the country’s largest media contingent will be especially noteworthy because it comes a day after two other Giants coaching candidates nailed their respective debuts.
Matt Rhule, who never even got to his interview with the Giants on Tuesday because Panthers billionaire owner David Tepper was so smitten with the Baylor coach that he agreed to a seven-year, $62 million deal within hours of their first meeting on Monday, delivered an oratorical tour de force at his introductory news conference.
And former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who met with the Giants last week but wound up signing with the Cowboys, gave frustrated Cowboys fans reason for hope when he waxed poetic about the potential that Jerry Jones’ team presented.
Judge now gets his chance to express his vision to Giants fans, who have seen their team reach the playoffs just once since Tom Coughlin’s 2011 Super Bowl championship season. It has been one disappointment after the next, with Coughlin being nudged to the exits after the 2015 season, then Ben McAdoo flaming out in less than two seasons, and Pat Shurmur going 9-23 the last two years.
The Giants have had six losing seasons in the last seven.
That’s an awful lot of damage for a first-time head coach to repair, especially one with so little familiarity — even to Patriots fans, whose attention for the last two decades has been focused on Bill Belichick, the most successful coach in NFL history with nine Super Bowl appearances and six Vince Lombardi trophies. In fact, the two best things Judge has going for him are Belichick and Saban, two legendary coaches who have provided a wealth of knowledge for Judge, a former high school quarterback who played special teams at Mississippi State before embarking on his coaching journey in 2005.
And if Giants fans don’t know him yet, then at least they can take comfort in the glowing testimonials of Belichick and Saban.
“He’s an excellent coach, he understands the game well, works extremely hard and is a very good teacher of fundamentals,” Belichick said of Judge earlier in the 2019 season. “Joe picks up concepts and coaching points quickly. He is an exceptional leader and one of the best coaches I have been around. He has been responsible for coaching units comprised of nearly every player on the roster. That requires an ability to handle many moving parts, make constant adjustments and immediate decisions.”
Saban was equally effusive.
“Joe is one of the brightest young coaches in our profession, and I think he will do a tremendous job as the head coach of the New York Giants,” Saban said. “They are getting an extremely smart football coach who is very loyal, organized and diligent about getting the job done.”
That’s high praise from two of the greats, and Judge has earned those plaudits with a mix of hard work, intelligence and detail-oriented preparation that his players in New England have continually cited.
But he’s running his own show now, and the degree of difficulty goes up exponentially. From obscure assistant to head coach under the brightest lights in the NFL, Judge’s task is an enormous one.
It begins on Thursday, when he states his case to Giants fans about why he’s the right man for the job.
They’ll be watching and listening carefully, looking for a glimmer of hope.
The stage is yours, coach.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
