Bill Belichick undoubtedly played a role in helping Joe Judge land the New York Giants’ head coaching job last year, but now we have an even better idea of just how strongly the New England Patriots coach endorsed his former assistant.
Judge worked as an assistant under Belichick for eight years before the Giants hired him. In a wide-ranging interview with Ian O’Connor of the New York Post, Giants co-owner John Mara said some of the characteristics he sees in Judge are the same ones displayed by Belichick and Tom Brady when they were dominating the NFL together.
“You always know where Joe is on the practice field, just like you did with Bill and Tom,” Mara said. “His attention to detail is very impressive to me, and those are characteristics Tom and Bill had as well.”
According to O’Connor, Belichick delivered a very straightforward message to Mara last year when the Giants owner asked for the scouting report on Judge. A source told O’Connor that Belichick told Mara, “He’s better than the last two guys you hired.”
Mara would neither confirm nor deny that Belichick said that, which probably tells you something.
The two coaches Belichick would have been referring to were Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo. Shurmur went 9-23 in two seasons with New York. McAdoo went 13-15 over two years. Those results shouldn’t be difficult to top, and Judge already has a 6-10 season under his belt.
We already heard last year about one big way Belichick may have helped Judge land a head coaching job. It sounds like the future Hall of Famer is extremely confident in Judge, which was clearly a factor in the 39-year-old getting the job.
