#Joe Judge’s message for doubters: No time for ‘sunshine and rainbows’

Joe Judge has a response to his many critics: I’m being me. This is not an act.

He’s not running a rigid training camp because he’s trying to be Bill Belichick. He’s not making players and coaches run laps after mistakes because it’s something he saw Belichick do. He didn’t remove names from the back of players’ jerseys because of Belichick.

This is how he wants to run a team.

“I’m doing everything in my own personality. I am not trying to imitate or emulate anybody,” Judge, the first-year Giants’ coach, said during a Tuesday appearance on ESPN Radio. “It’s got to be genuine and it’s got to be sincere. You know how it is — if you lie to the players you’re going to lose them forever because they’ll see right through that.

“So I’m me and I think our players have a pretty good feel for who I am. I’m pretty straightforward with those guys. I don’t have a lot of time to mix fluff and try to make everything all sunshine and rainbows. I think that it’s my responsibility to tell them the straight truth so they can work on improving what they have to and we can get better as a team.”

Submit your Giants questions here to be answered in an upcoming Post mailbag

Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe tweeted, “This isn’t going to end well,” when he saw some of Judge’s methods. Former NFL receiver Brandon Stokley called it “Josh McDaniels 2.0.”

Judge, however, doesn’t seem to care what anybody thinks.