New York Giants head coach Joe Judge generated both buzz and controversy when he said following Monday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that dropped his team to 2-6 on yet another disappointing season that New York's coaching headsets went out in Kansas City. Judge added that the communication setbacks have "been happening in every game so far," but the NFL later denied that claim and said:
"We were not made aware of any issues during the game from the club through our standard communication channels that are used to identify gameday issues."
It appears there's a new twist to the story.
During the Thursday morning edition of the "Boomer and Gio" program on New York's WFAN sports radio, show host and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason explained that the headset issues are "a real thing," not just with the Giants but around the league:
Joe Judge was right?! Following up on the Headset fiasco, @7BoomerEsiason CONFIRMS the Giants head coach's complaints about the headsets. @WFANmornings pic.twitter.com/VJTBNa3Lil
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) November 4, 2021
"We deal with the league and they keep telling us about different software updates or whatever it is," Judge said after the Kansas City loss.
Interestingly, Esiason seemed to confirm there have been difficulties with such updates throughout the campaign.
Many analysts and fans initially assumed Judge was merely looking to justify his perceived poor use of timeouts during losses earlier in the week. Even if Judge and Esiason are right about the headsets, technological problems alone don't excuse the coach's 8-16 overall record with the Giants.
Nevertheless, Judge may have been spot-on in this instance, and the NFL may have some explaining to do before Week 9 kicks off.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!