Getty Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers.
Joe Judge survived “Black Monday.” However, less than 24 hours after, co-owner John Mara informed the 40-year-old coach it was time to pack his bags. On January 11, the New York Giants announced that Judge was fired after just two seasons at the helm.
It was certainly a 180-degree move for an organization that just a few weeks ago appeared content with giving Judge another season to prove his worth. That was, of course, prior to the entire season imploding in front of our eyes. From a Daniel Jones-less offense failing to score more than 10 points in any game over the final six weeks of the season to Judge’s drawn-out public boasting of his resume after blowout losses, things got ugly fast in East Rutherford.
However, the final nail in the proverbial coffin that was Judge’s tenure with the G-Men may have very well been his choice to run a quarterback sneak with five-plus minutes remaining in the first half of the team’s season finale. In a decision mocked across the sports world, the Giants came out in a jumbo set on 3rd-and-9 from their own 4-yard line and proceeded to have quarterback Jake Fromm divebomb into the rear end of center Billy Price.
Why might you ask? Well according to Judge himself, he “wanted to get room” for their punter to kick the ball away — because of course.
On Tuesday morning, prior to Judge being relieved of his duties, Green Bay Packers star Aaron Rodgers joined “The Pat McAfee Show” for his weekly appearance, where he held no punches in his verbal dismantling of Judge and the Giants’ decision making.
“You play to win the game.. nobody wants to be part of kneeling the s— out to take a tie. You know what would make me lose my mind almost as much as that.. 3rd-and-nine on the minus-five, let’s go in goal-line personnel & run a QB sneak.” Rodgers said laughing. “Call that one in Matt [LaFleur], and let’s see what happens. That s— ain’t happening.”
Mike Greenberg Links Judge’s Firing to Rodgers’ Comments
Mike Greenberg, longtime sports pundit and host of ESPN’s “Get Up” took to the airwaves on January 12 to connect the dots between Judge’s firing and a potential interest by Mara to possibly lure Rodgers to New York:
I’m going to make a serious point here because the firing of Joe Judge came not long after Aaron Rodgers said that on Pat McAfee’s show yesterday. And here’s my vision of this… I believe that yesterday morning John Mara the owner of the New York Giants woke up thinking I might get Aaron Rodgers to come play for my team. I have two high first-round picks to trade to the Packers if he wants to go somewhere — were the Giants we’re a high profile, we’re this respected legacy franchise. And then in the afternoon someone knocks on his office door and says hey just in case you didn’t know Aaron Rodgers just mocked your franchise and your head coach. I mean just basically made you sound like a bunch of boobs there’s no way in the world he’s coming here. And John Mara, and I mean this almost seriously, was like okay we got to make a move here.
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Rodgers to New York?
As brilliant as it might be to see No. 12 close his playing career in the biggest sports market known to man and rejuvenate a franchise that has run on life support for most of the past decade, it’s highly improbably to happen.
While speculation surrounding Rodgers’ eventual exit from Green Bay is bound to live on, ultimately the 38-year-old quarterback will have far better win-now situations to slide into should the Packers decide to make him available for trade.
Still, the fact that Giants have two selections within the first seven picks of the 2022 draft will likely keep rumblings of a potential pairing alive for the next three-plus months.