As the head coach of the New York Giants, Joe Judge’s old-school persona combined with his methods (and the team’s lack of success) have made him a popular target of criticism. Judge’s critics made themselves heard recently when the coach attributed multiple wasted timeouts in a narrow Week 8 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs to headset and communication issues along the Giants’ sideline.
Issues which, as it turns out, have actually been occurring and afflicted far more teams than just the Giants, according to one former NFL QB in the know.
Speaking on WFAN’s Boomer & Gio, former NFL quarterback and current media personality Boomer Esiason shared that the headset issues Judge cited are a “100 percent real thing” happening all over the NFL. According to Esiason, the topic is something the NFL had told the teams to keep quiet about prior to Judge’s statements.
Here’s what Esiason said about Judge’s claims:
“In every stadium, there’s a black box that sits on the field, believe it or not. And you have to update the software for all of these things — especially when they’re changing these things — so they connect properly. And every now and again, there is going to be a drop in the connection for whatever reason. Much like maybe your cell phone may drop when you’re driving in an area where you can’t pick up the cell service. It’s very similar to that.
“This has been an ongoing situation. There have been more emails and meetings regarding this because communication is paramount to success in the NFL. And when there is a hiccup in the communication, then all of a sudden you have problems like the Giants did on Monday night.”
The headset issues have been recurring for the Giants and they have contributed to the team’s issues with timeout management, Judge said after his team’s most recent loss, Despite the NFL’s claim that they had not been notified by the Giants of any issues, Judge maintained that the problem still stood.
“We’ve talked with the league, they’re looking into resolving the issues that we’ve had throughout the year. We’ll talk continuously with them,” Judge said. “That being said, I made it very clear last night, I’m not an excuse maker. I was asked a direct question in terms of why you weren’t (calling) timeout in certain situations and that’s the reason. That’s all I’m going to say about the headsets.”
The first half of Judge’s second season as Giants head coach has been a frustrating one, as mistakes, missed opportunities and injuries have all conspired to thwart the team’s high hopes and place them at 2-6 at midseason.
