New York Giants co-owner and CEO John Mara faced the media on Monday just as he always does this time of year. It used to be something fans looked forward to. Nowadays it has become something they wish they could avoid.
Mara fired his head coach, Pat Shurmur, on Monday morning and put his full confidence behind his embattled general manager, Dave Gettleman, who he is entrusting to find the team a new head coach.
“I think we’ll get it right this time,” Mara told reporters.
Mara mentioned that when it came to Gettleman’s missteps, that going forward “his batting average has to improve.”
Shurmur is a good football man but wasn’t the right football man. As an assistant and a coordinator, he is one of the best. As a head coach, he’s been a failure, winning just nine games in his two seasons here.
Shurmur ends up being the fall guy for years of mismanagement. He wasn’t a good enough coach to overcome the dysfunction that has seeped into the building over the past decade.
Mara believes the Giants have a solid foundation in place to build upon and that potential candidates, despite the perception that many don’t want to work with Gettleman, will learn to like him “once they meet him.”
So, the Giants are seeking a head coach for the third time since they dumped Tom Coughlin four years ago. Mara said they would not rule out hiring a defensive-minded coach, which would be nice since the defense has been one of the league’s worst the past several seasons.
Interestingly, Mara maintains that both Ben McAdoo and Shurmur could have turned things around, but that patience had simply run out.
Will the next coach be given more than two years?
