Of players

Any who want to kneel in protest

remain on the team.

While the Giants still have to discuss how they’ll proceed on game days, however, Judge’s team has spent the last couple weeks having daily conversations on the racial injustice and police brutality that was forced to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness these last few weeks.

And the Giants have a plan for how to get involved in the local community:

They have divided their player roster up into smaller groups, and they’ve assigned each group a different location in the Tri-State area to concentrate player-driven initiatives on communities and organizations throughout the region.

“We’ve got a team program where we break the team into subdivided teams, and those subdivided teams have at this point identified a focus or two for each of the groups, and we’ve built them geographically into the New York Metroplex working on the boroughs, around New Jersey,” Judge said. “And they’re gonna work with some local organizations to be involved with local communities.

“It was important for us and important for our players to be involved with this area,” he continued. “It was important for them to be involved with all parts of the area, not just checking the box and saying we’re working with one organization. They wanna go ahead and hit kids and families and organizations from all over the area. That was important to them.”

Judge wants to make clear that the Giants’ programs are “completely player-guided.” The coaches and organization are helping to facilitate, support and participate in all of it.

But this was about listening to the players’ voices, hearing their message, encouraging discussion amongst the players themselves, and now “bridging (their goals) through our community resource program.”

The example fullback Eli Penny gave the Daily News last week — connecting police departments to their local youth to improve understanding — is one kind of action they’ll take. And that’s a good overarching theme for the type of work the Giants are planning.

Rookie corner Darnay Holmes, for example, posted a photo Tuesday on Instagram of a Pasadena (Ca.) police officer addressing California youth.

“We talk all the time that we have an opportunity as a team to be an example, a positive example of being able to make a difference and work together within the communities,” Judge said. “We have guys from all different backgrounds, all different experiences. We’re used to working towards a common goal, and when you talk about work towards social justice, these are things that we can be active with in our communities and make a difference.”

Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard, of course, made one of the loudest Giants statements so far by participating in a player-driven video challenging the NFL’s negligence and failure on these issues.

Judge’s response to their words?

“I think all of our players have done a really good job of being articulate with their message, of using their platform, and of drawing awareness,” Judge said. “And my message to the guys was in terms of using social media, this is a platform that didn’t exist 30, 40 years ago, it’s a different time. And they do have a platform. I just urge them: When you put anything out there, make sure you’re speaking for yourself, you’re articulating your beliefs, and that you have no need to clarify or defend it once you put it up there, to just make sure that you’re taking your time to put what you want out there. And that you’re really putting the message out there that you need.”