STUD AND GUTS
No lyin’! McAdoo invokes sex-crazed lion, Kipling poem to inspire Big Blue
THE WAY Ben McAdoo views it, it is time for the New York Football Giants to be King of Beasts in the NFL.
For the younger Giants, McAdoo presented the Rudyard Kipling poem “If,” a father’s advice for his son.
For the Giants 26 and over, McAdoo presented the story of Frasier the Lion, a fading fellow who rallied to become the Hugh Hefner of the jungle. Frasier was characterized by Life Magazine as “a reigning sex simba” and by others as “the first X-rated zoo attraction in history.” Within 16 months, he had fathered 33 cubs.
McAdoo explained it this way to The Post:
“A lion in a Mexican circus, I believe it was the ’ 70s — ’ 72 maybe — and he was a little long in the tooth, and it was showing, and they felt he was washed up and they sent him north to California [Lion Country Safari], and the next thing you know, he was eating vitamins. The lionesses were bringing him meat and wouldn’t eat until he was done eating. And was a lion that showed that he still had value, he still had worth. It just took him a little more time and effort to get himself ready.” IF. If Kipling had searched for a football coach insightful and compassionate enough to try to bridge the empathy gap in an NFL locker room between an Eli Manning and an Odell Beckham Jr., he would have written a poem about McAdoo.
“I sat there with my son [BJ, 4] and listened to it,” McAdoo said on the day his Giants reported to training camp. “Twenty-five and under, it’s a pretty powerful poem.”
McAdoo and son listened to “If ” on June 14.
“We have players ranging from 21 years old to 36 years old,” McAdoo said. “That’s a big age difference. The good teams merge well and jell well. We need to understand where the other person’s going through, and empathy’s a big part of that.”
McAdoo was tailor-made to fill Tom Coughlin’s Giant shoes, even if it hardly looked that way on the day he trotted out that oversized suit when he was introduced as head coach in the auditorium of the Quest Diagnostics Center.
He navigated his way through the Josh Brown debacle, through the Beckham firestorms, albeit sometimes without the desired effect, and never blinked on his way to the playoffs.
He was all football all the time, the way Joe Girardi is all baseball all the time, oblivious to the peripheral noise around him.
He reached millennial Giants in a way Coughlin could not and earned their respect with his intelligence, sensitivity to their physical needs, social awareness and how he commanded the room. He never was afraid to play rookies.
Now he doesn’t shy away from the greater expectations as he tells his Giants how the road to Minneapolis and Super Bowl LII must proceed.
“It’s my job to focus on the goal of the organization, and I need to paint that picture,” McAdoo said. “But at the same point in time, we need to understand what it’s gonna take to get there, and what it’s gonna take to get there is to be great day to day.”
What can McAdoo for an encore? Field Big, Blue lions. “It’s a schedule that we’ve all dreamed of,” McAdoo said.
It’s a challenging schedule, but lions always embrace challenges.
“We put a plan together with a fine-tooth comb for these guys, and it’s gonna give us an advantage to be playing our best football when our best football’s needed when the weather turns,” McAdoo said.
He has kept hi s pl ayers engaged with clips from “Step Brothers” and “Game of Thrones” and “Fight Club.” His playlist variety at practice was music to his players’ ears. He poked fun at himself when he wore a “Benny With The Good Hair” T-shirt to a team meeting. He has a new hairstyle.
He has more offensive weapons and a better chance to field a team in his own image: A team that is sound, smart and tough and committed to discipline and poise.
There are vice presidents who do not have the right stuff to be president. Coordinators who do not have the right stuff to be head coaches. McAdoo never let us see him sweat on the hot seat. The New York kitchen never was too hot for him. He was the same guy every day, and it resonated with his team.
What can McAdoo for an encore?
He has yet to win a playoff game. So he has plenty yet to prove. He didn’t get the best out of Eli Manning or his offense (19.7 ppg) in 2016. This will be their fourth year together. The defense needs more from McAdoo’s offense and more from McAdoo’s quarterback.
He’s not a rookie head coach anymore. Coughlin didn’t win his first Super Bowl until his fourth season as Giants head coach. McAdoo, who turned 40 on July 9, is a young man in a hurry. He doesn’t want to wait that long. If he reminds everyone he is the right man for the job, he may not have to.
Roar, Giants, roar.
“[He]still had was value,a lion he that still showedhad worth.that heIt just took him a little more time and effort to get himself ready.” — Ben McAdoo on Frasier (above), an elderly lion who fathered 33 cubs after eating vitamins