New York Giants get lesson in discipline under Joe Judge at training camp

We’ve all heard about the tough guy reputation of New York Giants head coach Joe Judge. It’s something that had produced varying reactions, ranging from respect from fans who think Judge has brought the team in line with a new direction to dismissal by some national media outlets who have called Judge a parody of himself.

That reputation flared up last season when the firing of offensive line coach Marc Colombo allegedly turned heated, and a recent on the field confrontation between Judge and Kelvin Benjamin may have reminded some of that reputation once again.

But, even if it’s controversial, there’s at least one thing that Judge’s no-nonsense style is definitely good with – building discipline. That’s manifested itself this training camp in the form of players running laps for various mistakes. And sometimes, depending on the mistake, the whole unit has to run the lap around the practice field.

We saw that happen in Monday’s practice when one player made a substitution error during a field goal block. As a result, the defense including the coaches was spotted running a lap around the field.

It’s not the only time that it happened. Former Dallas lineman Joe Looney ended up running two laps also, and expected starting center Nick Gates would end up running one quickly to avoid holding things up – the Giants aren’t the deepest team at center, and their other regular option was busy working with the second team on a different field.

All in all, the laps are a minor thing but it’s still nice to see a tangible example of the culture of hard work and improvement that many Giants players have spoken about since the arrival of Joe Judge.

After all, far from considering Judge a parody of himself, every statement from the players shows that the locker room has bought in – even when they have to run laps at practice because of this no-nonsense style.