Three things are guaranteed in life: death, taxes and a Bill Belichick disciple getting fired on Black Monday. Except this year, the wrong one was canned.
While the Dolphins axed Brian Flores following their second straight winning season — and a convincing Week 18 victory over the Patriots — it looks like the Giants might keep Joe Judge. The embattled disciplinarian hasn’t yet met with team ownership, according to NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo.
Regardless of what Judge tells owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, his woeful record speaks for itself. Judge just completed the most embarrassing season out all of the Belichick disciples, which is saying something. No coach in the NFL finished with his team in a worse place, including the four who were just fired.
Oh, there have been humiliating exits. The Lions canned Matt Patricia after a brutal loss on Thanksgiving; Josh McDaniels was fired during his second season in Denver due to a Patriots-like videotaping scandal; Eric Mangini was one of the most loathed figures in the Browns’ sad history. But nobody can top Judge, who went on an 11-minute rant full of apparent lies and shots at other coaches, only to run a QB sneak on 3rd-and-9 from his own 4-yard line.
With the loss to Washington, Judge became the first Giants coach to ever drop 13 games in a season. The Giants are 10-22 with Judge in charge.
Who’s the clown show organization, again?
Judge poked at Washington last week in a desperate attempt to save his job, referencing an altercation between defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne. “This ain’t a team that’s having fistfights on the sidelines, this ain’t some clown show organization or something else, okay?,” Judge said.
The Giants may not be a structural clown show (though season-ticket holders who received one free medium can of Pepsi as appreciation gifts may disagree), but they have a clown coach. Only a clown would run two QB sneaks deep in his own territory during a meaningless game.
Judge also took a shot at his predecessor, Pat Shurmur, saying “every player” looked him “in the eye” and told him they “tapped” out on the 2019 season.
Well, the Giants won two of their last three games under Shurmur and lost five games by a touchdown or less — despite losing 21 players to injured reserve.
Judge lost his last four games by a collective score of 106-26. The Giants failed to score more than 10 points in each of the contests.
That’s what quitting looks like.
But amazingly, Judge said many of his former players who signed for more money elsewhere constantly call him and commiserate about their apparent miserable experiences playing for other organizations.
It’s remarkable that someone who worked with Belichick could seemingly possesses so much disdain for his coaching brethren. Belichick respects the coaching profession probably more than anybody else in history.
Yet, Judge crapped all over other coaches in a desperate attempt to save his job, in addition to smearing his former co-workers. Judge weirdly said everybody on the 2018 Patriots staff thought they would get fired midseason, despite being 6-2 at the midway point.
The good news is, Belichick always seems to welcome his failed proteges back — besides Mangini. Patricia, for example, is the new Ernie Adams. (Patricia is still under contract with the Lions, so he’s probably provided Belichick with some free labor as well.) With the special teams unit collapsing under high school kid lookalike Cam Achord, Judge’s return to Belichick’s staff would likely be celebrated in Foxborough.
It would also be celebrated in the Meadowlands.
But for now, the champagne will have to stay on ice. Inexplicably, Judge might get a third act, despite his arrogance at the podium and failures on the sideline.
