Ben McAdoo will not be bringing Jerry Palmieri back to the NY Giants this year as the NY Giants Strength & Conditioning coach. Signs of intelligent life. Cartwheels. Better late than never.
This NY Giants blogger has been calling for an overhaul of the NY Giants S&C program for YEARS. All we got were crickets from the Giants and the media. It took 7 years of underperformance, 3 consecutive years at ~the bottom of the NFL, and a head coaching change to finally see a new direction. If it took Coughlin losing his job to get change in the S&C program, so be it. When we did our 3 part series (asking for replacements of the HC, GM and Medical Services) at the end of this 2015 season, we were particular to note that of all 3 areas, the S&C was at the top of the list of problems. Yes, it is that bad.
How would you like to redo the 2015 season with Will Beatty? and/or Victor Cruz? or Johnathan Hankins? Jon Beason? Donnell, Fells, Kennard, Schwartz… or Amukamara for just the Saints game? Even a small improvement of injuries is going to elevate competitiveness.
Of course the avalanche of injuries are NEVER the entire fault of the S&C program. We know that. And we are not suggesting it now. But injuries matter a ton. So when the franchise is creating “an injury dynasty” we yell from the mountain top for change. Lord knows that the media certainly isn’t doing any yelling. Instead of yelling, they’re muting.
Media disinterest got another exclamation point today from Ebenezeer Samuel of the NY Daily News:
It’s Palmieri’s removal that could make McAdoo an instant hero for fans, who blamed the veteran strength coach for the injuries that have ravaged the team in recent years.
Note the journalist distancing himself from the connection between S&C and injuries. Samuel likens this coverage to us fans as spectators at a Roman Gladiator match, eager for blood. He belittles fan instinct as a populist lynch mob, with us jubilant at someone losing their job. No. All we want is accountability and responsibility.
From the journalists we wanted more probing and investigation. We never got that. “Just more bad luck.” Frankly, I resent the tone and have had it up to here with the denial and passivity of the media in completely ignoring the issue. We saw it again after Coughlin stepped down. No questions were asked about yet another year of terrible injuries and what was going to be done about it. And now when McAdoo fires Palmieri, we get “fans who blamed the veteran strength coach for the injuries.” Still in denial.
Palmieri became the easy cyberspace scapegoat, although it’s unclear whether he should shoulder all the blame.
“Cyberspace scapegoat.” Was Palmieri writing this column for them? Ebenezer Samuel must have all the answers. I will lay odds that Samuel wouldn’t know a Physiatrist if it bit him in the a**.
Our investigation pointed a finger at Palmieri and Coughlin’s superior, Ronnie Barnes, the latter who fancies himself as wearing numerous hats within the organization. These 3 all bore responsibility for the horrible injury performance. Two of them are gone. What we never heard from the media were who ANY of the people were who COULD BE held accountable. Barnes? Palmieri? Coughlin? (1) They were too busy ignoring Barnes entirely. (2) They were too busy laughing at fans for suggesting Palmieri. (3) They were too busy quoting Coughlin verbatim about how “unfortunate” it was for every successive injury. (4) They were too busy quoting Hanlon (whose missives were written by Barnes/staff) on all of the “changes” made. (5) They were too busy to ask Walter Thurmond or anyone else around the league what was up with the Giants injuries. Heck, if I didn’t tweet back stats to Vacchiano, he’d still be parroting Mara’s 2014 year old stale info how soft tissue injuries went down, when in fact in 2015 they soared again. These journalists see organizational failure yet they have no one single person to put 100% of the blame on, and so they hold NO ONE responsible.
Note how genius Samuel uses the offseason training excuse to smokescreen Giants accountability.
The strength coach also does not fully dictate workouts to a franchise’s players year-round
We answered this one many times. After the 2011 CBA, NFL league wide injuries did increase, but with the NY Giants, they exploded. It is the averages, Mr. Samuel. Maybe journalists need a primer on statistics. Everything is versus the averages. Every NFL team deals with the same identical offseason. Luck is not a factor in 7 years, although you would have us believe that the Giants injury to Wilson was the difference between the Giants being healthy or not. In 7 years, a single players’ injury is almost rounding error in terms of the massive amount of data being used. Forget that every team has their share of the injuries that are “unavoidable.” More excuses. More smokescreen. Throw in the obligatory Hanlon/Barnes spa Fridays and GPS trackers. Maybe next year Barnes will be shoving wristwatches up the players’ behinds. Keep sticking to that script. Who pays these journalists’ salaries, the Daily News or Medical Services?
We eagerly await who McAdoo selects as his new S&C coach. The younger the better. 21st Century flexibility/range of motion.
Football Outsiders does their analysis of the 2015 season’s Adjusted Games Lost typically in March. Until then we assume the Giants will end up near the bottom, as per ManGamesLost. If I never have to look at these sites (for injury data) again I would be happy. Until 2009 I never cared more than a few moments about serial injuries. I couldn’t tell you the Giants S&C coach from the 1970’s up until Palmieri if you paid me. I’d like nothing more than to return to that state of ignorant bliss once more. Here is to returning to the mean, having an average year of injuries and ending this chapter.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
