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When the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers meet on Monday Night Football in Week 8, it will reunite Joe Judge and Tom Brady, who spent eight years together as members of the New England Patriots.
Although Judge and Brady did not exactly work side-by-side in New England, they’ve certainly spent enough time around each other to become familiar. And one thing is true about both guys: they each are very fierce competitors.
In the eyes of Judge, no one is more competitive than Brady, who despite his superstardom strives to be the very best every single time he steps onto the football field.
“He’s a great player,” Judge told reporters on Tuesday. “I think the thing you have to always keep in mind with Tom is he’s as tough and fierce a competitor as there has ever been in any organized sport. This guy really is truly one of the great ones.”
Some would argue that Brady has seen somewhat of a drop-off in his post-Patriots career, but not Judge. When he watches Brady on film, Judge sees the same future Hall of Famer he’s always known.
“This guy is clearly one of the best to ever play the game. He’s playing at a very high level,” Judge said. “One thing about Tom is he’s a very intelligent player. He thinks ahead of the play, he’s always looking for answers, he’s very proactive in how he sees the game, he understands the personnel on the other side extremely well. He’s been in all of the situations, however you slice it up, as many times as you can possibly imagine, whether that’s through practice or games. This guy is fluent in football.”
Judge, who is widely praised for his own football knowledge, admits he’s picked a few things up from Brady, who is five years his senior.
“A lot of times you run [meetings] as a coach, there would be other times where we would let the players go ahead and do it. You would let Tom go in there and talk to the receivers about what he’s seeing and what he expects on a certain route,” Judge said. “To me, that made you a much better coach by listening to how the quarterback sees it and what he expects on each route. To me, there’s fine points in coaching but ultimately it matters how the players see it on the field. To be able to hear through the vision that Tom had, that was really an education in itself right there.”
Under the lights on Monday night, it will be up to Judge to somehow outsmart both Brady and Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians in order to walk away with an improbable win.
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