How Giants Head Coach Joe Judge Keeps His Players Humble and Hungry

Inside the Giants' team headquarters, there no longer exists “Victory Monday” as it was initially meant to be.

The tradition of giving the players the day off after a win doesn't exist in head coach Joe Judge's domain--and that has nothing to do with the frequency of the tea's wins, either.

The reason why Judge has his players report to work the day after a game, win or lose, is to keep them humble and hungry through a corrections practice.

Judge, who insists he’s the same guy regardless of the previous day’s outcome, admitted that it could be more challenging to run the corrections practice on a Victory Monday.

“Sometimes you walk in after a win, you have to tell a team this is the toughest it’s going to be to coach all year because you think you have all the answers,” he said.

“After a loss, people can be more receptive at times. You have to understand and know who your team is and how you have to approach them.”

And how does Judge approach the players?

“I’m the same guy all the time, win or lose,” he said. “In terms of me laughing or joking, if I think the team needs to lighten the mood a little bit, I may throw something in there. If sometimes it has to be a little bit more serious tone, then I’ll approach it that way right there.

“But I think the guys know what to expect from me on a daily basis. Win or lose, practice or game, I’m approaching everything with the same mentality and personality.”

That’s not to say that Judge, who in his first season at the helm of the struggling franchise, won’t toss his team a bouquet of roses when it's deserving.

But the point he tries to drive home—and one that his players seem to appreciate—is that he’ll never lead them down the proverbial primrose path. Doing so can result in a false sense of security that, for a team trying to break out of a multi-season rut, exacerbates the losing.

“Obviously, it makes it easier to hear corrections and things like that,” inside linebacker Blake Martinez said of Judge’s approach. “But I think, for the most part, that’s the one thing you have to be as a competitor in this league, is a guy that can’t take those moments of ‘Oh we won: we’re all good. We’ll go to the next week.’

“You have to be able to take a seat, see what little aspects that you can improve on that also would have allowed the game to be over in the third quarter, be over in the second quarter, and so on and so forth.”

Judge’s approach has kept his players humble and hungry to prepare for the next challenge on their docket, be it a practice, a meeting, or a game. And Judge has liked his players’ response to the corrections meeting, win or loss.

“I think one of the things that’s most pleasing about our guys, to be honest with you, is they’re very consistent, they’re very steady,” Judge said. “They came in [Monday] with that same attitude we’ve seen in the previous weeks. There’s a little more joking around and laughing at different times, but really ultimately, they came in the room and they’re very easy to coach.”

That’s because Judge’s message is simple: No matter what the size of margin or defeat, there’s always going to be work to be done.

“Look, Philadelphia is watching the same tape we are, and they’re looking to expose everything we put out there that, while it may not have been magnified in [Sunday’s] game, they’re going to look to go ahead and expose it in next Sunday’s matchup,” Judge said.

“We have to do a good job of knowing what we have to continue to improve on and clean up, and also, what we can build on in a positive manner. Our guys have been great. One of the things I’m seeing that is very pleasing is I didn’t see a group of guys come in like we have everything figured out; I saw a group of guys coming in here today ready to learn, ready to work and move forward.”

And hopefully, win another game come Sunday.