Joe Judge Fired By New York Giants
BOSTON (CBS) -- Joe Judge survived "Black Monday" in the NFL. But he didn't last much longer.
The now-former Giants head coach was fired by the team on Tuesday evening, after his team finished 4-13 this season.
A former assistant under Bill Belichick in New England and Nick Saban at Alabama, Judge got the Giants' job despite never before being a head coach and without having run an offense or a defense at any level.
But Judge impressed Giants ownership and the media, "winning" his introductory press conference and introducing a new era of Giants football. That vision -- from the team and the coach -- did not go as hoped.
The Giants went 6-10 in 2020, starting the season 0-5 and finishing the year with losses in three of the last four weeks.
This year, with Saquon Barkley back from injury and Daniel Jones looking to rebound from a horrible sophomore season, teh team started out 0-3 and sat at 1-5 by mid-October. The year ended with six straight losses, with New York's offense averaging 9.9 points per game over the final nine weeks. The offensive misery came to a head when the Giants ran two consecutive QB sneaks when backed up deep in their own end of the field during their Week 18 loss to Washington.
Judge insisted in recent weeks that his organization was not a clown show, taking indirect swipes at the Washington Football Team and direct shots at his predecessor, Pat Shurmur. He also stated definitively that his players were all in on his system and that players who left the Giants after the 2020 season have called him to say they wished they stayed with New York.
After taking a couple of days to digest everything from Judge, though, Giants ownership decided to move on.
"Steve [Tisch] and I both believe it is in the best interest of our franchise to move in another direction," team president John Mara said in the team's official statement on Tuesday. "We met with Joe yesterday afternoon to discuss the state of the team. I met again with Joe this afternoon, and it was during that conversation I informed Joe of our decision. We appreciate Joe's efforts on behalf of the organization. I said before the season started that I wanted to feel good about the direction we were headed when we played our last game of the season. Unfortunately, I cannot make that statement, which is why we have made this decision."
The Giants also announced the retirement of general manager Dave Gettleman on Monday, thus bringing about an entire shift for the franchise heading into the 2022 season.
Along with Brian Flores in Miami, Judge is the second former Belichick assistant to get fired from an NFL head coaching job this year.