Why Judge, Stefanski weren’t Pa. HS teammates for long
Joe Judge and Kevin Stefanski could have been teammates their entire high school careers had Judge’s family not had to make a hard financial choice.
Stefanski and Judge were both quarterbacks on the freshman football team at St. Joseph’s Prep in North Philadelphia in the fall of 1996. But Judge didn’t make it the full season because an injury his father had sustained at work forced the family into a tough spot.
“My dad got hurt, lost his job, and we couldn’t afford to send two boys to The Prep,” Judge, 38, told the Daily News in the spring. “My brother Jimmy was already a junior finishing out, so I understood we had to make a decision. And I was only a freshman. So it was either do I transfer to Father Judge or Lansdale Catholic, and I went to Lansdale.
“I was torn apart when I had to leave.” Twenty four years later, Judge and Stefanski, 38, both have come out all right.
They’ll be opposing NFLhead coaches on Sunday Night Football at MetLife Stadium when Stefanski’s resurgent Cleveland Browns (9-4) visit Judge’s gritty Giants (5-8).
Stefanski came up through the Minnesota Vikings organization, and Judge rose to prominence with the New England Patriots. They crossed paths frequently in their rapid climb, last facing off as assistants when the Patriots beat the visiting Vikes, 24-10, in 2018.
They’ll still grab a beer at the NFL Combine and talk ball when they can in Indianapolis, too.
The story that circulated in January when Judge was hired, though, said he’d transferred out of St. Joe’s Prep in 1996 because Stefanski had beaten him out as the freshman team’s QB.
But that mischaracterizes a more complicated situation Judge’s family was dealing with. Not to mention, Judge says, leaving St. Joe’s Prep over football never would have flown with his mom, Denise, a teacher by trade.
“If you think my mom would have let me transfer out over athletics, you don’t know my mom,” Judge said with a laugh. “I would have stayed and competed and done whatever I had to do. Whatever happens your freshman year in high school doesn’t decide your career. My mom was torn apart when I had to leave, too.”
Judge remembers Stefanski standing out from the jump as the player, though, unquestionably. And Stefanski would go on to star at the University of Pennsylvania as a defensive back before getting into coaching.
“Kevin was a damn good player, man,” Judgesaid.“Ihavealotofrespectforhimas a player and a coach. Hewasgood. Andwe wereallsplittingtimeasfreshmen.Heeven got bumped up that year I think to JV or varsity, but it was after I was already gone.”
Stefanski remembers Judge, and the entire Judge family, as tough and physically imposing athletes.
“As you know, Joe is a big man,” Stefanski said in a conference call Wednesday. “His dad was a big man. His brother was a big tight end for us. Just a very physical, strong player. I know he had a great career there at Lansdale Catholic. He, not surprisingly, was a tough player, and I think you see how he coaches and that is who Joe is.”
Judge’s father Joe had been disabled on the job for the Origlio Beverage company toward the end of Judge’s eighth grade year. In Judge’s own words, his father fell while helping to carry a motorcycle up a flight of stairs to set up a display at a restaurant in Bensalem.
The injury would lead to multiple botched surgeries and a bad back that required his father to walk with a cane the rest of his life (he passed away at 66 on July 21, 2017).Origlio laid off Judge’s dad at the 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.
“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, 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 worked for Minnesota through the 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 NewYork when he was hired in 2018, but the Vikings declined the Giants’ request to interview him to be Shurmur’s OC.
“MeandKevin 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. Hewas 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.”
Now they’re running their own NFL franchises. The arrow is pointing up on both their programs. AndonSunday, their paths that intersected briefly in the fall of 1996, will cross once more.
“It is very cool,” Stefanski said. “I have followed Joe and his career. To see what he was able to do in college and in New England — won three Super Bowls up there — it is just outstanding. He is a good man. I know his family, a solid, solid family. I know his dad passed away a few years back. Just solid people. So not surprised with where Joe is today.”