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Sports
After the firing of Judge, Brian Flores should be the next man up
By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor
Joe Judge is out.
Fired as the Giants’ head coach on Monday after two seasons of painful losing, two seasons of overseeing a staff that operated a mistake-prone, regressive offense. Two seasons of Knute Rockne rah-rah diatribes that wore thin with a rightfully unmoved and fed-up fan base.
The 40-year-old Philadelphia native and former New England Patriots special teams coordinator came into the job with energy, promise and a seemingly clear vision with a decade of apprenticeship working under Bill Belichick, the most accomplished professional football coach in history, and Nick Saban, widely considered the best college football coach of all time.
Yet Judge fell short of both winning enough games and displaying the mandatory leadership skills that are imperative to galvanizing elite athletes. He was 10-23, including 4-13 this season, and gave the appearance of someone who was overwhelmed in the final weeks of this campaign. After Judge went on an emotionally charged rant on Jan. 2 following a dismal 29-3 Giants loss to the Chicago Bears on the road, his status to return became dubious.
“[Co-owner] Steve [Tisch] and I both believe it is in the best interest of our franchise to move in another direction,” said Giants team president and co-owner John Mara 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,” expanded Mara. “Unfortunately, I cannot make that statement, which is why we have made this decision.”
Judge was the third straight Giants coach to be terminated after only two seasons. He was preceded by Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur. On Monday, senior vice president and general manager Dave Gettleman resigned. So Mara and Tisch are now on the hunt for a GM, who will ostensibly make the next head coach hire.
“It is an understatement to say John and I are disappointed by the lack of success we have had on the field,” said Tisch regarding Gettleman’s departure, who began his tenure as the Giants’ GM in late December of 2017.
“We are united in our commitment to find a general manager who will provide the direction necessary for us to achieve the on-field performance and results we all expect.” Whoever gets the position, they would be wise to interview Brian Flores and then make him an offer. Flores, 40, was born and reared in Brooklyn. He is of Hondurian descent and would be the first Black Giants head coach of the 21 who have been full-time or interim. Flores was let go by the Miami Dolphins on Monday for philosophical differences with owner Stephen Ross and general manager Chris Grier. He left with a 24-25 record in three seasons but he’s been lauded by many close observers of the NFL for turning around a moribund program. Flores, who was on the Patriots staff with Judge as a defensive assistant, went After only two seasons as the Giants’ 4-2 against Belichick in his three seasons head coach, compiling a record of 10-23, leading the Dolphins. In his first year the Joe Judge was fired by the franchise’s Dolphins were 5-11. The next season the ownership on Tuesday Brooklyn Poly Prep and Boston College alumnus guided Miami to a 10-6 mark. They began this season 1-7 but won eight of their last nine games. With the Dolphins, Flores was demonstrably what Judge was supposed to be with the Giants. Now Mara and Tisch have another auspicious opportunity to get it right.
(Bill Moore photo)
The Bills-Patriots matchup headlines the AFC’s wild-card weekend
By VINCENT DAVIS Special to the AmNews
The NFL’s first-ever 17-game regular season schedule is now behind us and football fans’ attention shifts to wild-card weekend. The opening round of the playoffs begin this Saturday and ends on Monday, the day the nation will be celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and honoring the legacy of the civil and human rights leader.
The American Football Conference’s (AFC) No. 1 seed, the 12-5 Tennessee Titans, have a bye and an additional week for one of the league’s best players, running back Derrick Henry, out since Nov. 1 recovering from a fractured foot, to prepare for his return.
The featured AFC game of the weekend is the No. 3 seed Buffalo Bills hosting the No. 6 New England Patriots on Saturday in primetime (8:15 p.m.). The East division rivals split two games this season. The Bills will rely on quarterback Josh Allen to power their offense while the Patriots will have rookie QB Mac Jones under center, the first time since 2001 the franchise will play a postseason game without Tom Brady, who led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win last February.
Game 1 on Saturday’s schedule features the No. 5 seed Las Vegas Raiders versus the No. 4 seed Cincinnati Bengals on the road (4:30 p.m.). It took a dramatic 35-32 overtime victory by the Raiders over the Los Angeles Chargers this past Sunday, the NFL’s final 2021-’22 regular season game, for them to clinch a playoff spot. By winning, the Raiders knocked the Chargers out of a postseason berth and enabled the Pittsburgh Steelers to gain a trip to the playoffs.
Beginning their first season in Las Vegas after playing most of their 61 years of existence in Oakland—Los Angeles was home from 1982-’94—the Raiders led the league in headlines this season. Last summer, defensive end Carl Nassib became the first-ever openly gay active NFL player. Then Raiders head coach Jon Gruden stepped down in mid season after e-mails surfaced of him making homophobic and misogynistic remarks after it was reported he had made racist statements in comparing NFL Play-
ers’ Association Executive Director DeM(Bill Moore photos) aurice Smith’s lips to Michelin tires. Gruden was replaced by Rich Bisaccia in early October. He was previously the Raiders special teams coordinator and was met with tragedy soon after taking the job. In November, Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was cut by the team after allegedly exceeding 150 miles per hour while driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content more than twice the Nevada legal limit, crashing into another car and killing its driver, a 23-year-old woman. Bisaccia managed to keep his team centered and is 7-5 as interim head coach. Game 3 of the AFC’s Wild Card schedule concludes Sunday night with the No. 7 Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike seed Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City to AMNEWS Tomlin will lead their teams into the opening round of the NFL playoffs this weekend take on the two-time defending AFC cham01/06/22 pion Chiefs (No. 2) at 8:15 p.m. It could be Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s last postseason with the team. He was drafted by the Steelers in 2004 and has won two Super Bowl titles.
AMNEWS 01/13/22
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