New York Giants head coach Joe Judge has been making his mark on the team early on in his tenure, and he continued to do that during Thursday’s practice.
After warming up and starting practice, Judge wasn’t happy with the product on the field. He was so disappointed, in fact, he pulled the team off the field and made them restart the entire process over again.
Not just the practice part. He made the Giants go through their stretching and warm-up part of the day as well. All 69 players jogged back to restart the practice.
Indeed, Judge did not like the urgency, attention to detail or energy from his players during their individual period open to the media. So he gathered them all between the Giants’ two main practice fields and let them have it in an expletive-laced scolding.
Then all 69 of the Giants’ players (53 active roster, 16 practice squad) lined back up on Field Two and started high-stepping forward, repeating the warmup they’d done less than a half-hour prior, as the loudspeaker blared “stretch” once again.
While this might seem like an odd thing to do, Judge isn’t the only head to take this approach. Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher told the Daily News he’s done that before.
“I’ve done it a number of times. I’ve started drills over, I’ve started practices over, because there are times when you go out there to work and you just feel like the sense of focus and the sense of purpose is just not there,” Cowher, said. “As a head coach you only get so many of those days and you’re never gonna get that day back. And sometimes they need to be reminded of that.”
The Giants are trying to develop a hard-minded mentality. It shouldn’t come as a surprise given Judge comes from the Bill Belichick tree, but he’s going to do what he feels is necessary to get the team’s mind right from the start.
