He spent eight seasons with the Patriots, won three Super Bowl rings and learned at the feet of the most accomplished coach in NFL history. But make no mistake: When Joe Judge brings his Giants to New England for joint practice sessions on Wednesday and Thursday in advance of Sunday’s preseason finale at MetLife Stadium, this will be strictly business.
“This isn’t some kind of trip down Memory Lane,” Judge said Monday, as he continued preparations for practices against Bill Belichick’s six-time Super Bowl champion Patriots franchise. “I wouldn’t take the team up there for any kind of personal reasons. It’s just a team that we’re going to play anyway in the preseason.”
Just a team that they’re going to play? Hardly. It’s the Patriots, a longtime rival that is part of the fabric of the Giants’ storied history. And it’s Belichick, the former Bill Parcells lieutenant who helped the Giants win their first two Super Bowl titles before branching off and winning half a dozen with New England. It might have been eight championships for Belichick had Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning not pulled off two colossal upsets of the Patriots in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
No, this is not simply another team, especially for Judge, whose fine work under Belichick earned him a shot at the Giants’ head coaching job at age 38.
“Joe’s a good football coach, period,” Belichick said Monday. “All the things that a good coach needs to do, Joe does. And he did a great job here for me in a number of different capacities. Most importantly, special teams, but he had a lot of other responsibilities as well. When I gave him something to do, he did a good job of it, and so that led to other things. He’s a very accomplished football coach. He has a good understanding of the game and how to coach it.”
Judge has worked for the greatest NFL coach in Belichick and arguably the greatest college coach in Nick Saban at Alabama. But unlike other coaching progeny of those two all-timers who have run into trouble trying to replicate the Belichick/Saban way, Judge knows he has to do things his way. It’s an important distinction, and Judge’s mindfulness of being his own man will serve him well moving forward.
“I draw things from every experience I’ve had and every coach I’ve gotten to work under,” Judge said. “I try to put those things in my own personality, my own philosophy.”
But now that Judge and Belichick are head coaching peers, this not the time to look back.
“The only thing that’s important to me is the New York Giants,” Judge said. “That’s what it’s about right here this week is helping the Giants get better. That’s what our focus is.”
Belichick has been the master at maintaining single-minded focus, and if there’s anything Judge can take away from his former boss, it’s the ability to keep distractions out and keep your eye on the prize. The only prize that matters in the NFL: the Lombardi Trophy.
Belichick has successfully climbed that mountain more than any coach in NFL history, and Judge can only hope to get the first one and worry then about what might come after.
And to get there, he knows he can’t simply be a Belichick clone. Too many others have tried and failed at that game — notably Eric Mangini of the Jets and Matt Patricia of the Lions.
“I’m very careful to make sure everyone in this organization knows that I’m not trying to make this team anything but the New York Giants,” Judge said. “I’m not trying to recreate anywhere I’ve ever been. I’m not trying to go ahead and emulate or imitate any other program. This is the New York Giants. We’re going to do it with our players. We’re going to do it in our personality. We’re going to do what we think is best for us every day to make our team the best team that we can possibly be.
“I have a great deal of respect for everything that coach Belichick has done up there,” he said. “I have a great deal of respect for the players who are still there who played for me. I have a great deal of respect for the staff members I worked alongside. But right now, my priority, my loyalty is [to] the New York Giants and our staff and our players and our organization.”
His priorities are in the right place as he prepares to face his mentor. He’s ready to do it his way, not Belichick’s way.
For Judge, it’s the only way.
@BobGlauber
Bob Glauber has covered the NFL since 1985 and has been Newsday’s NFL columnist since 1992. Twice selected as the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, he is president of the Pro Football Writers of America and author of “Guts and Genius.”
