How is Joe Judge Giants ‘Clown Show’ Better Than Coach Ron Rivera’s Washington Team?

Judge’s later denials aside, no one believes him when he claims the remarks were not directed at the Washington Football Team.

We have no idea how Joe Judge is unaware that he lives in a glass house. But we certainly know why Ron Rivera, in returning fire, is throwing stones.

New York Giants coach Joe Judge this week lost control of himself this week in a media session, defending his program in a lengthy 11-minute rant in which he insisted that his Giants don’t have “fistfights on the sidelines’’ and aren’t like other “clown show organizations.”

Judge’s later denials aside, no one believes him when he claims the remarks were not directed at the Washington Football Team.

No one, including Rivera.

“To be upfront about it, it disappoints me because for somebody to make a comment like that and not really know the circumstances of the situation we’ve gone through,” said Rivera via the “Kevin Sheehan Show.” “For goodness sake, if you pay attention to what’s happening you would have found out that we had just had one of our most popular players [Deshazor Everett] …  in a terrible car accident where his longtime girlfriend is killed. We had another player [Montez Sweat] who lost his brother to murder, and then we had another player who lost another brother.”

Judge is surely aware of most of that. But more top-of-mind for him, it seems, is when Washington defensive linemen Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen fought on the bench during a 56-14 loss to the Cowboys in Week 16.

Said Rivera: “There’s reasons why things happen, and to take a shot at people when people are going through what they’re going through, that’s not right. If you don’t know and understand other people’s teams, talk about yourself; talk about your own team. That’s what’s fair.”

The added twist, as the Giants play host to Washington on Sunday in the season finale for both teams: Washington is 6-10. New York is 4-12. How is the latter team qualified to call the former team “clowns”?


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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983, is the author of two best-selling books on the NFL.