The New York Giants, one of the last of the NFL’s venerable organizations, has entered the melee of social media-induced management decisions. The Giants fired both coach Ben Mcadoo and GM Jerry Reese today (Dec. 4). The Daily News reported that Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch finalized their decision for the dual firings this morning, after another Giants loss this weekend, this one to the Oakland Raiders.
New York Giants management dragged into social media era
This move, of letting go of both coach and general manager, midseason, officially put the New York Giants in the social media age. An organization that is typically measured and conservative in its approach to personnel decisions acted quickly on this one. The last time the Giants fired a coach in the middle of a season was in 1976 when they let go of defensive genius Bill Arnsparger following a 0-7 start. And, according to the New York Times, Reese was only the third general manager for the Giants franchise since 1978. His predecessors Ernie Accorsi and George Young retired voluntarily.
While Mcadoo was only in his second season as Head Coach of the Giants, Jerry Reese had risen up through the ranks and been with the team since 1994. Beginning as a part-time scout for the team, Reese moved up to become the GM in 2007 and was in place for two Giants’ Super Bowl victories.
Giants historically are more methodical
As a long time season ticket holder and New York Giants fan, it is hard to imagine that this "slow-moving" organization that let fans endure 15 years of lousy football from roughly 1965-1980, could react to this present 2-10 season with such alacrity! Golly, it took fans actually flying a plane over Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands, with a sign reading "15 years of lousy football, we’ve had enough” - anonymous, while others were shown burning tickets outside the stadium on the evening news, before the Giants were able to draft players like Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor that eventually turned things around in the 1980s.
I guess the only issue I have concerning the firing of coach Mcadoo and GM Reese and the whole current episode for the New York Giants is the snowball effect of negative news that our current environment facilitates. Yes, these personnel decisions would have come out the same had ownership waited until season’s end and before social media, they would have. However, as the media dissected every thought and word uttered, it became clear that the dignity of the people involved was being splayed open. If one followed the past week's trials and tribulations inside the Giants camp, you would have seen reporters ask the questions of Ben Mcadoo that Twitter users want to know. Then, what the coach said was somewhat contradicted by owner John Mara and the player, in this case, Eli Manning had yet a nuanced version of said conversations.
It all becomes painfully obvious, that what the public is really after is the tawdry, reality TV version of the events that caused two men to lose their jobs. And, by gosh the media will get it for them. If you think that we as people are collectively better off for it, you and I probably can’t sit down for a beer together.