PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- In the aftermath of Doug Pederson’s controversial fourth-quarter decision to play quarterback Nate Sudfeld in place of Jalen Hurts in Sunday night's Eagles loss, New York Giants head coach Joe Judge has made comments that are catching a lot of attention.
Judge, a Bucks County native and Lansdale Catholic alum, said he'd let the Birds speak for themselves on the matter. However, he did say on Monday -- without mentioning any other teams or individuals by name -- that a coach not doing everything he can to help his team is disrespectful to the sport, the players and their families.
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"To look at a group of grown men who I ask to give me an effort on a day-in, day-out basis and to empty the tank -- and that I can look them in the eye and assure them that I’m always gonna do whatever they can to put them in a competitive advantage and play them in a position of strength -- to me you don’t ever want to disrespect those players and their effort and disrespect the game," he said.
He alluded to the sacrifices everyone has made this season just to have football during the pandemic.
"To disrespect the effort that everyone put forward to make this season a success for the National Football League, to disrespect the game by going out there and not competing for 60 minutes and doing everything you can to help those players win, we will never do that as long as I’m the head coach of the New York Giants."
When asked if he had spoken to Pederson, Judge said he had not.
The 6-10 Giants would have won the NFC East if the Eagles had defeated Washington on Sunday. However, Judge said, his team had 16 opportunities to take care of business, and the Giants will not make any excuses for the results of the season.
"It's our responsibility to take care of our opportunities and perform better and execute the situations when they're on our plate. We don't ever want to leave our fate in the hands of anybody else," he said.