NEW YORK _ Giants head coach Joe Judge's extremely detailed approach is coming handy at the best possible time. During his press conference call on Wednesday, Judge noted that he has four calendars set up depending on how the United States progresses with their battle against coronavirus.
"Well, it's my job to be prepared," Judge said. "As the head coach, I need to have a plan for everything that's going to come up. When we got the memo from the NFL the other day of how the spring is going to look, I sat down and we've made four calendars already in anticipation of different scenarios that could come up.
"We have them color coded, so if we get the players as scheduled, we're working off the blue calendar. If we don't get the players, we're working off the red calendar. If we get them later in the spring, we'll pull up the purple calendar. We have different scenarios mapped out, so we have a plan of attack when that time comes."
The timing of that announcement by Judge couldn't have been better. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he hopes the city will get back on track in the fall.
"By September, then we are hopeful we can be back to something more like normal," de Blasio said during an interview on Fox News.
"We have to be smart about doing it in stages," de Blasio said later. "Making sure that we can confirm that we're containing the disease more and more."
It's not the most important thing, obviously, but it's good to know Judge has a plan that will keep the team safe and allow them to prepare for whenever the regular season does start. Judge is also aware that getting football back is very low on the list of priorities as the country attempts to recover from coronavirus.
"The biggest thing is beyond football," Judge said. "I hope everyone out there is safe, I hope everyone is healthy, I hope everyone is staying in good spirits. We're doing our best right here to get back to work for you guys so you have something to watch and be proud of."
"You find out how essential life is, how about essential employees, how we really would be struggling to function without people to do the everyday things for us," Judge continued. "Look, it's tough sitting in your house. It's a lot tougher going out there every day, being exposed to the virus and doing your job, and then having to go home and look your family in the eye. We can't take lightly the sacrifices all those people are making for us, and we appreciate it."
No one knows for sure when the season will return, but Judge has a plan to make sure his team is where they need to be when football starts back up. Judge will get to address his team for the first time officially when the Giants begin their virtual offseason program on April 20.
