John Mara Says This Is Most Embarrassed He's Ever Been As Giants Owner
Giants owner John Mara didn't mince words with reporters Wednesday, as he discussed the firing of head coach Joe Judge.
Judge was adamant on his way out that the Giants weren't a "clown show" organization, but Mara admitted things have hit rock bottom in New York.
"Honestly, I would have to say yes. Yes it is," Mara said. "I kept thinking during the season that we had hit rock bottom, and then each week it got a little worse. Honestly, I'm not proud of saying this, but if I'm going to be 100 percent honest, I would have to say yes."
Mara is right. Things did get worse as the season wore on. The Giants (4-13) ended on a six-game losing streak, being outscored 106-26 in the final four weeks of the season. General manager Dave Gettleman couldn't take it any longer and retired on Monday. Judge didn't have a choice in the matter. He was relieved of his duties Tuesday after just two seasons and a 10-23 record.
Mara admitted he wasn't thrilled with Judge's 11-minute press conference after the 29-3 Week 17 loss to the Bears, where Judge took shots at the previous regime.
"We just got to a point where I thought we had dug ourselves a hole so deep that I didn't see a clear path to getting out of it unless we completely blew it up and started all over again with a new general manager and a new head coach," Mara said. "I still think that there's a really good head coach inside of Joe Judge. I just felt that where we are right now, on the verge of bringing in a new general manager, we have to give that person the flexibility to bring in a head coach that he wants.
"That was a large part of the decision here and making a change. I just felt like we really needed to just start from the ground up again."
The next general manager will be tasked with finding the Giants' fourth head coach in the last six years. Ben McAdoo (2016-17), Pat Shurmur (2018-19) and Judge (2020-21) each got just two seasons to turn things around, but the results remained the same.
New York has just one playoff appearance since they won the Super Bowl in 2011. Eight of their last nine seasons, they finished with a losing record.
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