Bill Belichick is a busy man.- Former assistant coach
Joe Judge said that during his job interview with the Patriots, Belichick took his shirt off and started getting changed for a dinner later in the evening. - Judge thought at first that Belichick was playing mind games with him, and refused to be flustered by the wardrobe change.
New York Giants head coach Joe Judge has learned from the best, having served as an assistant to both Nick Saban at Alabama and Bill Belichick with the
According to Judge, his interview to become a special teams assistant with the Patriots took an interesting turn when Belichick began getting changed in the middle of the meeting.
Speaking with the podcast "Flying Coach," Judge said that his initial meeting with Belichick was an odd one.
"I go in there, and I'm talking to him, and as I'm talking to him, in the middle of the conversation, he stands up and takes his shirt off," Judge said. "I'm just looking at him like, 'What is this guy doing? Is this more of those head games? Is he just trying to screw with me?'
"We're fully engaged in the interview, talking about personnel reviews and scouting and all this different stuff. He's taking his shirt off, walks behind a corner, he comes out, he has different pants on as we're talking. I'm like, what is going on here?"
Judge initially thought Belichick was testing him, but ultimately, Belichick just had a dinner he needed to get to and wasn't interested in wasting any time.
"At the time, I'm thinking, this guy's playing head games, trying to see if I'm going to blink. I'm like, 'Look, I've already lived through that, buddy. I'm alright on this.'
"But if you know Bill, he just has a thousand things going on. He had to go to some dinner that night. He's like, I gotta get ready while I'm talking to this guy, I already know I'm going to offer him the job, so I've gotta get some things done."
For Judge, the interview worked out great. Not only did he land the job, but he worked his way up the Patriot ladder to become the special teams coordinator.
After eight seasons and three Super Bowl rings with New England, Judge jumped to take over the New York Giants head coaching job in 2020.
While he didn't mention any details on the podcast, I'm guessing he kept his shirt on for the job interview.