New York Giants co-owner John Mara explained the phone call between him and Matt Rhule’s agent prior to the Carolina deal.
Matt Rhule was essentially a fan favorite to be the next head coach of the New York Giants. The former college coach possessed an impressive resume, especially when you consider what he did while at Baylor. The Bears went 1-11 in Rhule’s first year but finished 11-3 in his third and final season.
Nonetheless, Rhule took the Carolina Panthers head-coaching job prior to even interviewing with the Giants. Reports also stated that Rhule’s camp spoke to the Giants over the phone prior to accepting the seven-year Carolina deal.
On Thursday, Giants co-owner John Mara revealed to the media what was said on that specific call.
“[Rhule’s] agent called me early Tuesday morning to say that he had a deal in place,” Mara said, per Darryl Slater of NJ Advance Media. “It was a seven-year deal. I had a brief conversation with Steve [Tisch] and Dave [Gettleman], and we agreed that we were not going there, for a number of reasons. One, we weren’t going to a seven-year deal with anybody. But more importantly, we had somebody we were excited about.”
That “somebody” just so happened to be Joe Judge, who Big Blue introduced as their new head coach on Thursday. They were so intrigued by him that they chose to hire him before even interviewing Josh McDaniels on Wednesday.
No, Judge didn’t receive a contract as long as Rhule’s. Regardless, the organization is very confident the former Patriots special teams coordinator is the right man for the job.
