What the world wants to know: Why no Abby the golden retriever?
Joe Judge’s 6-year-old dog turned into a sensation last week when a picture of the new Giants head coach and his loyal pet graced the back page of The Post, with Abby leaning on Judge’s lap during his NFL draft preparation at the family home in North Attleborough, Mass.
The first all-remote draft featured coaches and general managers shown on national television in their homes, with family members and pets on the screen when teams were on the clock and picks were made. There were no shots of Judge’s wife or his four kids, and no shots of Abby.
Judge initially planned on working the draft from his home, but he reconsidered and instead spent the three-day event in his temporary apartment in New Jersey, not far from the Giants’ practice facility, leaving behind his family and — you guessed it — Abby.
“I tried to bring the dog with me, I was told I could not bring the dog with me,’’ Judge said Saturday night after the Giants picked the last of the 10 players they added in this draft. “And I’ve been getting frown-faced memes all weekend because everyone else’s kids got to be on TV so I got a 6-year old who wants to know if she’ll ever be famous. I told her it’s OK, no news is good news sometimes.’’
Judge prepared for the draft at home but was worried about unforeseen problems that could mess things up as the selections were coming off the board.
• Giants’ NFL Draft tracker: Live round-by-round picks and analysis
“I was a little nervous with the overall setup on my own personal end, just the way my house is set up, I thought this was better for the overall function,’’ Judge said. “I didn’t want be in the middle of a round and all of a sudden something froze up or I didn’t have everything accessible to me.’’
Judge credited Justin Warren, the Giants’ vice president of information technology, for doing “a tremendous job’’ keeping him and all the Giants personnel up and running.
General manager Dave Gettleman was not home alone in Bergen County, N.J., as Ty Siam from the team’s football operations/data analytics department was on hand to make sure no technological issues arose.
“To make sure I didn’t blow anything up,’’ Gettleman said.
Nothing blew up.
“Everything went as smoothly as it could,’’ Gettleman said. “Occasionally there was a glitch, people would get bumped off or whatever. Considering the situation it went as well as you could expect.’’