‘He’s not a coach that can ever win a Super Bowl’: Former Giants player had harsh words for Joe Judge

"You can tell he’s one-sided about everything. He’s a know-it-all. That’s not how it’s supposed to work."

Kelvin Benjamin Joe Judge
Giants coach Joe Judge speaks to the media at the team's 2021 training camp. AP Photo/Corey Sipkin

The Red Sox split a Wednesday doubleheader with the Blue Jays, with both teams taking a 4-1 win from the pair of games.

The U.S. Olympic team continued to pile up medals at the Tokyo Olympics, with highlights coming from swimmer Caeleb Dressel, who set an Olympic record in 100-meter freestyle to win gold.

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Earlier on Thursday morning, U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee won the women’s all-around competition.

Patriots training camp officially got underway, with the contest at quarterback now open.

Tonight, the U.S. men’s soccer team takes on Qatar in the CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner is once again expected to start.

Kelvin Benjamin gave a harsh critique of Joe Judge: Former Patriots special teams coach Joe Judge is now head coach of the Giants. Entering into his second year with New York, Judge came under immediate criticism from a player who was cut on the first day of training camp.

Kelvin Benjamin, who was a first-round pick wide receiver in 2014 by then-Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman (who now occupies the same role for the Giants), was attempting to make an NFL comeback as a tight end.

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Benjamin, 30, hasn’t played in the league since 2018. But after going through the offseason with New York, he was seen leaving the field prior to the start of practice on Wednesday with Gettleman following behind him.

Questions immediately rose over what had caused Benjamin’s dramatic and immediate departure. Later in the day, the Giants announced that Benjamin had been released.

On Wednesday night, Newark Star-Ledger reporter Zack Rosenblatt shared Benjamin’s take on what happened.

According to Benjamin, he was told by Giants staff to get his weight down to 251 pounds from 265 after minicamp concluded in June. Benjamin instead weighed 268 pounds at the start of camp, and would have drawn fines from the team.

“[Judge] was like: ‘We’re going to fine you for being 17 pounds overweight,'” Benjmanin told Rosenblatt. “I was like: ‘How are you going to do that?’ I said: ‘So you want me to be a smaller tight end than when I played wide receiver.’ He had nothing to say. He quieted down.”

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Benjamin also claimed that Judge hadn’t told him he wouldn’t be allowed to practice on Tuesday when he arrived at camp.

“He didn’t even talk to me [Tuesday],” Benjamin said of Judge. “The day before practice, he didn’t bring all of this up. I just felt like the dude didn’t like me. Mr. Gettleman knew exactly what went down. Everybody in the building was telling me I looked great. I was feeling good. It’s crazy how they twisting the narrative about everything like it’s a joke. They make it seem like we don’t even matter. That’s the thing about humanity, man.”

Following this experience, Benjamin said that he does not intend to try and catch on with another NFL team.

He saved his strongest criticism for Judge.

“I have a perspective on Joe Judge,” Benjamin concluded. “He’s not a coach that can ever win a Super Bowl because he sits there and cusses all day. You can tell he’s one-sided about everything. He’s a know-it-all. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. We all can learn from each other. We’re all humans at the end of the day. The true colors will come out.”

Trivia: Kelvin Benjamin was the fifth of five wide receivers selected in the first round in the 2014 NFL Draft. Who was the first?

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(Answer at the bottom).

Hint: Like Benjamin, he played his college football in the ACC.

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U.S. swimmer Bobby Finke erased a huge deficit in the final 50 meters of the 800-meter final to win gold:

On this day: In 1997, Mariners outfielder Jay Buhner robbed Scott Hatteberg of a home run with a tremendous catch. Despite the highlight, Boston still managed to win the game 4-0, defeating Randy Johnson behind a complete game shutout from Tim Wakefield.

Daily highlight: What else could it be but Jarren Duran’s electrifying moment from Wednesday night that was an inside-the-park home run in everything but the official scoring.

Trivia answer: Sammy Watkins

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