GIANT LIFE IN A ZOOM ROOM
Like most of us, virtual world is new normal for Blue during coronavirus pandemic
Turning the camera on and making eye contact means everything to Joe Judge when the Giants’ coach is meeting with his players on Zoom. “If we don’t see your eyes, then you ain’t there,” Judge said this week.
Judge learned from watching his now 12-yearold son Michael doing remote school work in the spring.
“I learned in the spring real fast: (He) figured out he can put ‘…connecting’ on the bottom of his Zoom, and the teacher just wouldn’t call on him,” Judge said. “You have to learn all these little tricks and stay ahead of it. We have to see your eyes and know you’re locked into the meeting.”
So is Judge asking his son how to run his Zoom meetings with his team?
“No, I’m just observing criminal activity and staying ahead on enforcement,” Judge with a laugh. In all seriousness, though, the virtual world is the Giants’ new world working in the NFL’s intensive COVID-19 protocols.
Four Giants players tested positive for COVID-19 last week: kicker Graham Gano, tight end Kaden Smith, offensive
tackle Matt Peart and wideout Dante Pettis.
So this week for the first time all season, the Giants are holding all meetings virtually for three straight days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — with in-person practices sprinkled in on Wednesday and Friday.
Judge feels confident entering Sunday’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals (2-7-1) because he says the Giants (3-7) have grown efficient with their virtual work.
“We’ve had to be very particular about how we set the flow of the day to make sure everyone just doesn’t cluster together,” Judge said of discouraging groups in the locker room and other areas of the building. “That being said, we started this back in the spring, I think that was the best preparation we could possibly have for the season. This virtual world we’re meeting in, our guys have been tremendous with it. All of our guys have a good, quiet place they can concentrate at home. You can watch it in the grid format like we do right here and you can see everybody’s eyes. Everybody is locked in, everyone is tuned into each other. That’s all been very, very positive.
“You hear horror stories from other teams around the league, to be honest with you, about guys being distracted, guys playing with kids in the middle of meetings, things like that,” Judge said. “Our guys have been great about coming to work, being professional.”
Judge has stayed in regular touch with the Giants’ captains about what the players feel comfortable with to solicit feedback on the setup. The players seem to respond to this teaching strategy.
“I’ve been proud of the guys and the way everybody’s been handling it,” wide receiver Sterling Shepard said. “It hasn’t slowed us down and we have to continue to work hard during Zooms. It’s unfortunate, but that’s what we’re in right now and that’s what we have to deal with.”
Meanwhile, the head coach feels like he’s learning some strategies that could help him in future seasons, too.
For example, on Monday’s first day on the field coming out of the bye, Judge wanted to have a full team practice. To be safe, the Giants chopped the roster up into “small group individual focus practices” among position groups. And they thought it went so well, they might use it from now on for their first practices coming off byes.
“We talked as a staff in terms of coming off a bye week, that may be the way to go from now on,” Judge said. “We thought we had a lot of productive work as far as knocking off some rust.”
Not every virtual strategy is something the Giants gravitate towards, though.
Gano, while quarantined this week, posted a video of himself kicking into a net in his apartment to try and stay fresh, hoping to possibly be activated for Sunday’s game.
Judge wasn’t so sure about that.
“Yeah, he’d better open the window, Cincinnati doesn’t have a dome,” Judge said. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s accomplishing there. Obviously, this is a guy who is probably going stir crazy. He’s chomping at the bit to get back with us. Our biggest priority right now with him is just his health. When the doctors say he’s good to go, we’ll put him out there and let him start swinging away.”
Can’t blame Gano for trying something different, though. That’s what 2020 has called for from everyone — the Giants included.