Joe Judge’s message is exactly what NY Giants need right now
Can this strategy actually work with these NY Giants?
The major question will be whether or not these young NY Giants are young and mature enough to be able to see the bigger picture here.
Sure, it’s annoying that you don’t get to your name on the back of your jersey or that you might get scolded out in front of the entire team and media while then being forced to run a lap; but when that same accountability rings through from the top man on the roster to the 80th, it should sink in with the smarter and humble players – AKA the ones we want to keep around – that it’s never personal.
As we saw with Tom Coughlin when he took over in 2004, there is a potential for this sort of approach to blow up.
Early on in his tenure, several veteran players revolted against their own coach and went to the NFLPA to complain about Coughlin going overboard — mind you, this was in 2004, so just consider what ‘going overboard’ would be now (heck, I’m surprised Judge hasn’t been canceled due to having his guys run laps already).
Yet, we all know how everything ended up working out with Coughlin and the NY Giants.
Will that happen with Joe Judge?
It’s highly unlikely, but the young coach is doing all he can to actually change the culture instead of just ridding players he may not be so fond of for the way they carry themselves like Dave Gettleman did when he took over and preached how he would lead the NY Giants back to glory through restoring a proper winning culture.
I’ve been heavily against the character/culture over talent narrative that’s taken place here with the NY Giants since Gettleman took over, but I do believe with the right coach running the ship that this approach can work.
Especially with a young team.
Joe Judge and his players are going through an extraordinarily weird time together with little NFL experience to go around between him and the team.
Hopefully, a few years down the road, we look back at these weird days as the stepping stones that led the NY Giants back to being relevant.
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Because if the wins don’t come over the first year or two, the hardass mentality Judge is using on his players will wear on them quickly and we could see another attempted mutiny — only this time it’s 2020 and Judge would be unlikely to survive that.
Let’s hope the result is the former.