HS teammates

start of his son’s freshman year at The Prep.

Judge had loved St. Joe’s. He’d already made the 50-minute drive several times from Bucks County to North Philly to train with his brother Jimmy and his teammates. The Hawks’ head coach Gil Brooks had been Prep teammates with Judge’s uncle Kerry years prior, too.

“I used to go down there and train. That’s where I wanted to be,” Judge said. “But school started, we had bills to pay, and we had to make it work. I love the Prep, but Lansdale Catholic worked out, and I got to play for a legendary coach there in Jim Algeo.”

Judge then played at Mississippi State and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Bulldogs in 2005, rising quickly to Nick Saban’s Alabama staff in 2009 and Bill Belichick’s Patriots staff in 2012, taking over as special teams coordinator in 2015.

Stefanski, the son of NBA executive Ed Stefanski, meanwhile worked as a 2005 summer intern for the Philadelphia Eagles and spent the fall of 2005 on Penn’s football operations staff before hooking on with Brad Childress’ Vikings in 2006.

He then worked for Minnesota through his 2019 season as offensive coordinator, a stint that included serving as quarterbacks coach under then-Vikings offensive coordinator and future head Giants coach Pat Shurmur in 2017.

Shurmur tried to bring Stefanski to New York when he was hired in 2018, but the Vikings declined the Giants’ request to interview him to be Shurmur’s OC.

“Me and Kevin randomly would always come back into loops on different things,” Judge said. “We were both the same age and getting into coaching at the same time. He was with the Eagles as an intern and went to Minnesota. We bumped paths over the years at colleges, played each other last when I was with the Patriots and he was with the Vikings.” ow they’re running their own NFL franchises. The arrow is pointing up on both their Browns’ and Giants’ programs. And on Sunday, their paths that intersected briefly in the fall of 1996 will cross once more

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