If New York Giants players didn’t get Joe Judge’s message about his “team first” initiatives during his welcome speech in January, they certainly have it now.
Judge means business, stressing fundamentals and treating every player equally. He’s even making players (and coaches) who make mistakes in practice run laps as penance.
To further his initiative, Judge has taken the names off the back of everyone’s jersey during training camp to de-personalize the environment and force players to become more familiar with one another by the way they carry themselves and move.
Interesting from Joe Judge on #Zoom. #NYG don’t have names on practice jerseys. Why? “We should know who we are by the way they carry themselves.” And “It’s important to know the person across from you by the way they move.” Hmmm. Never thought of that.🏈
— Kim Jones (@KimJonesSports) August 17, 2020
We see this in college quite a bit at some major programs such as Penn State and Notre Dame where the name on the front of the jersey is always more important than the name on the back.
The only major New York sports franchise that does this is the Yankees, because, well, they’re the Yankees. They were actually the first team to introduce numbers to the backs of jerseys in the 1920s. But their numbering system was a bit different. Babe Ruth, who hit third in the order, wore No. 3 and Lou Gehrig, who hit behind him was assigned No. 4.
Don’t get too comfortable with this new Giants look, however. They will return to wearing their names on their jerseys once the regular season begins in September.
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