On Monday, the day after losing to the Oakland Raiders, the New York Giants fired Head Coach, Ben McAdoo and General Manager, Jerry Reese.  In professional football, the head coach is responsible for planning the game strategy and optimizing the performance of his players.  The general manager (GM) is responsible for negotiating the contracts of the players and for deciding whom to select in the college draft and whom to sign up from among the free agents.  McAdoo served as head coach for less than 2 years while Reese serve as the GM for more than a decade, including the times when the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2008 and 2012.

This season has been a terrible disappointment for Giants fans.  After losing in Oakland, the team’s record became two wins and ten losses. This record is especially disappointing considering that prior to the season, the Giants were picked by many experts to contend for the Super Bowl.  McAdoo has been criticized for poor play calling, players seemingly lacking in effort, and his poor relationship with the news media.  Reese has had disappointing results in picking players in the college draft for the past few years and has been especially criticized for not building a strong offensive line to protect the quarterback. The straw that appears to have broken the camel’s back was the benching of quarterback, Eli Manning, Most Valuable Player in the two Super Bowls that the Giants have won in the past ten years, and who is beloved by the fans.

Ultimately, team owners, John Mara and Steve Tisch felt that drastic changes were needed. Mara said at a press conference on Monday, “We agreed wholesale that changes needed to be made to this organization to get us back to the team we expect to be.”  He added, “We also agreed that it was pointless to wait any longer to make these changes.”

We can only hope that the new head coach and the new general manager will right the ship and turn the New York Giants back into winners!