Shortly after news broke that the New York Giants had hired Joe Judge to become the team’s 19th head coach, FOX Sports Radio personality Colin Cowherd ripped the team for “panicking” and making an awful hire.
“I think the Giants panicked. I think Dave Gettleman panicked. This is a bad move to me,” Cowherd said. “This guy is an assistant. He is not ready, in my opinion, to be a head coach.”
With a day to dive deeper into who Judge is and what some of the legendary names around the business think of him, Cowherd admitted that maybe — just maybe — he was wrong and Judge could turn out to be the NFL’s next phenom coach.
“Yesterday when Joe Judge got hired my takeaway was ‘Good God, this feels like a panic move!’ But now that I’ve read [everything], maybe Judge will be special,” Cowherd said. “There are some late bloomers, but most exceptional people separate very early and you can spot them very early. Judge is in his 30’s and it’s very possible that Dave Gettleman saw what Bill Belichick and what Nick Saban did.
“Belichick kept giving him more assignments, and Saban kept elevating him. Sean McVay, like Judge, was also a quarterback in high school and got a job at 30 years old in Los Angeles. Kyle Shanahan was 37, Mike Tomlin and Bill Cowher were not even 35 yet. Jon Gruden got a head coaching job at 34 after Al Davis spotted him. John Madden was 32. Don Shula was 33. Belichick was 38. . . Maybe I was wrong.”
Considering how hard we ripped Cowherd for his criticisms of Judge, it’s only fair that we call attention to his change of heart.
Perhaps others will follow Cowherd’s lead and give Judge a chance before declaring him a disastrous mistake. Or, at the very least, at least read up on him a bit before criticizing him based solely off of emotion.
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