New York Giants co-owner John Mara will tell you that a week and a half ago, Joe Judge seemed like a long-shot for the head coaching position and Matt Rhule was one of the favorites.
“If you asked me a week ago, 10 days ago, I would have said it probably would have been a long shot,” Mara said of Judge, via SNY.
But things change — sometimes quickly — and that’s exactly what happened when Giants brass sat down with Judge on Monday for their formal interview.
About halfway through said interview, the decision had already been made and everyone in the room knew it. Even with several additional interviews on tap, including one with Rhule, the Giants were confident they had their new head coach in the building.
Out of respect, Mara said the team would continue their head coaching interviews, but once Rhule’s agent called with word that the Carolina Panthers had offered him a seven-year deal, there was nothing left to do but close that door and let Judge, who was also being pursued by Mississippi State, know that he had earned the job.
“We were still going to interview Matt,” Mara said. “His agent called me early Tuesday morning to say that he had a deal in place. It was a seven-year deal and I had a brief conversation with Steve [Tisch] and Dave [Gettleman], and we agreed that we were not going there.
“We weren’t going with a seven-year deal with anybody, but more importantly, we had somebody we were excited about. So we went ahead and made Joe the coach.”
The Giants then proceeded to bypass all further interviews, including those with Josh McDaniels and Jason Garrett, and move forward with Judge as their new head coach.
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