New York Giants Fire Head Coach Joe Judge After Two Seasons

The New York Giants, who had been looking to avoid firing their third straight head coach after just two seasons into his tenure, reached a point of no return with Joe Judge after he led the team to a 4-13 season that tied a franchise record for losses in a single year.

The Giants announced Tuesday evening that Judge had been relieved of his duties as head coach. Team COO John Mara in a statement released by the team, said, “(Team Co-owner) Steve (Tisch) and I both believe it is in the best interest of our franchise to move in another direction. We met with Joe (Monday) 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.”

Mara had hoped to show more patience with Judge, hired two years ago after serving as a special teams coordinator under Bill Belichick in New England, than he had with Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur, the other two head coaches who didn’t make it past a second season.

While injuries wrecked this year’s Giants team, Judge didn’t exactly help himself with how he approached the preseason in holding his starters out until the preseason finale, a move that resulted in the team looking woefully unprepared for the start of the regular season or with some of the sideline issues that included having to call timeouts to avoid delay of game penalties, and issues with getting plays into the huddle on time.

Over the last two weeks, the wheels finally came off the wagon when the Giants were thoroughly embarrassed by the Bears and Washington Football Team in blowout losses in which they barely looked competitive on offense.

Judge, meanwhile, tried to appeal to the court of public opinion with some lengthy and passionate statements in which he defended the culture being built in the locker room and the improvements the team had made behind the scenes.

At the end of the day, it became too much for Mara and Tisch, whose franchise has become a laughingstock among the league, logging five consecutive seasons of double-digit losses and posting a 22-59 (.272 winning percentage) over that span, tying them with the Jets for the worst winning percentage in the NFL over that five-year stretch.

“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,” Mara said. “Unfortunately, I cannot make that statement, which is why we have made this decision.”

Mara, who along with Tisch is also looking for a new general manager to replace Dave Gettleman, who retired Monday following four years at the helm, said that the new general manager would help lead the search for a new head coach.

“This will be a comprehensive search for our next general manager,” Mara said Monday after Gettleman’s retirement was announced.

“We are looking for a person who demonstrates exceptional leadership and communication abilities, somebody who will oversee all aspects of our football operations, including player personnel, college scouting, and coaching.”