Eye contact.
Every coach craves eye contact with his players. Not the through-the-computer-screen Zoom visibility that 2020 has wrought. Live, in-person eye contact, head coach and players in the same room, making real connections not susceptible to the whims of Wi-Fi.
Joe Judge this summer will be able to achieve a more personal level of eye contact and still adhere to social distance requirements inherent in conducting an NFL training camp in the age of COVID-19. That the Giants’ game-day home, MetLife Stadium, is situated across the expanse of a parking lot from their practice facility — the Quest Diagnostics Training Center — gives Judge a possible advantage as the entire league embarks on the most logistically demanding training camp scenarios in NFL history.
If the Giants this year were limited to their practice and training facility — where they normally hold camp — the squeeze would be on and Judge would not be able to see his entire 90-man roster together at any one time in a meeting-room environment. The Giants have moved their entire camp operation to MetLife Stadium, where the team can spread out, using two locker rooms — their own expansive game-day locker room, plus the visiting locker room used for Jets games. The space is ample enough that plexiglass dividers between lockers will not be needed.
The Giants will use every inch of suite, office and club space available to them to get their work done and also maintain social distance safety.
There are teams that will have to work remotely at times during training camp because of space limitations. That the Giants do not have to do so will be helpful as Judge navigates through his first camp as a head coach.
The entire offseason program was a remote-only endeavor. Judge said one of the toughest aspects of having his players scattered across the country “was not how are we going to teach football, but how are we going to break down those virtual walls and have some team building and create a sense of team.’’ With his players finished up with the first rounds of their COVID-19 testing and in the process of taking physicals and starting strength and conditioning drills, Judge will be granted a certain sense of normalcy by being able to gather his team in one indoor space.
The Giants are occupying the east side of MetLife Stadium. Players and coaches eat in the United Rentals Club on the mezzanine level. The main meeting space for the team and position groups is the Coaches Club — the field-level club located behind the Giants’ bench. The entire weight room at the training facility was packed up and moved over to MetLife Stadium, situated in an open-air tent on the plaza near the Bud Lite gate.
In some ways, this undertaking is similar to how the Giants moved their entire training camp base of operations to the University at Albany from 1996-2010 and again in 2012. This time, the move can be measured in yards, rather than 140 or so miles. If this were M*A*S*H, it could be said of the Giants that they had to bug out.
The closest the players will get to setting foot in Quest Diagnostics Training Center is when they are on the practice fields adjacent to the large brick building. Players will be shuttled to and from MetLife Stadium to practices on buses crisscrossing the parking lot.
In case of rain, the indoor fieldhouse, located at the practice facility, is available — although the expectation is unless there is lightning in the area, Judge will keep working outside.
Unlike most years, when players are hunkered down in dorm or hotel rooms, the agreement with the league and the NFL Players Association stipulates teams cannot require veterans to stay in the team hotel. Some have opted to return to their houses or apartments after the workday is complete. Unlike other summers, all players will have their own room in the team hotel.
Not everyone can move over to MetLife. The Giants’ pro personnel department and the college scouts will remain inside the training center and not permitted to access MetLife Stadium.
Getting to this point was a challenge. Maintaining health and safety in unfamiliar surroundings will be difficult. It is all part of NFL training camp, 2020.