New York Giants players donned Ring of Honor jerseys earlier this week in a first for the organization.
Quarterback Colt McCoy wore the No. 16 jersey belonging to Frank Gifford, while cornerback Jarren Williams wore Mel Hein’s No. 7 and rookie linebacker Carter Coughlin wore Lawrence Taylor’s forever infamous No. 56.
Offensive lineman Chad Slade also wore Chris Snee’s No. 76 and defensive lineman David Moa wore George Martin’s No. 75.
Asked about that on Friday, head coach Joe Judge said that it’s important for current players to understand Giants history and tradition, and to honor those who came before them.
“It’s something that is very personally important to me. When I came to this organization it was something I expressed to ownership and they looked at it the same way,” Judge told reporters. “To me, the history of this organization is very important. It’s very important for all of our players coming in here to understand that this team has been here a lot longer than they’ve been around.
“It’s up to us to understand the history of this organization and who has come before us to make this a great place to be.”
All East Rutherford facilities are packed to the rafters with reminders about the history of Big Blue, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, access to certain areas are limited or restricted.
“We can’t walk freely through the building right now but there are signs all around the building about the area — that’s very important to us. We want to embrace where we live and represent the area,” Judge said. “There’s pictures and sayings all over the building that reference players who came before and coaches who came before.
“It’s important that we understand who those players are and why they’re significant, and who those coaches are and why they’re significant. It’s up to us and it’s our responsibly to understand who those great players are. It would be absolutely devastating if we ever had a current player run into a guy who’s in the Ring of Honor and not understand who he is and why he’s significant. Those guys have made tremendous contributions and every one of us are working to do something and make a contribution to this organization long-term.”
Because new and young players are not free to walk around and take it all in, Judge got with assistant general manager Kevin Abrams and they came up with the jersey idea for scout team players.
“I was talking to Kevin Abrams and he brought up [the jersey idea],” Judge said. “We kind of bounced [the idea] off each other on how we could tie it together and how it would work, and it kind of evolved into using the Practice Players of the Week.
“We had been putting them in different color jerseys just to signify what they are and I thought maybe it was a good idea to put them in some really significant jerseys. We have no names on our jerseys — that’s by design — but the name you put on your back it’s not yours, you have to represent that player in terms of how they played and how they practiced on a daily basis.”
[vertical-gallery id=660148]