Pat Shurmur indoctrinates newbies in ‘New York Giants way’
Giants head coach Pat Shurmur speaks at a news conference at rookie mimicamp on Friday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: AP / Frank Franklin II
Part of rookie minicamp is teaching the athletes what it means to be an NFL player. The other part is teaching them what it means to be a Giant. So coach Pat Shurmur has spent time with the newest crop of draft picks, free-agent signings and tryouts talking about “the New York Giants way.”
“We want to teach our rookies the right way from the very beginning,” Shurmur said on Friday. “Here is your iPad, here is your locker, here is where you need to be. Here is how you need to dress, here are the fields. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ work. Push in your chair. We want to really train these guys in the New York Giants way.”
For a team that is struggling to rebuild its culture and locker room just as much as it is the roster, those are the kinds of details that can’t be overlooked. A team that pushes chairs in together wins together, perhaps.
“I think what’s important is to be very professional in every facet of your life,” Shurmur said. “We want guys obviously that understand how important it is to have relationships, whether it’s in the building or being coachable, and we want guys that are good teammates and certainly guys that love football. So we’re looking for those kinds of guys and I think we have to live that life in our building.”
Giant steps
Three of the Giants’ draft picks signed their rookie contracts on Friday: Hernandez, linebacker Lorenzo Carter and quarterback Kyle Lauletta . . . Tight end Connor Davis out of Stony Brook University is at Giants rookie minicamp as a tryout. The last time the Giants had one of the Seawolves at rookie minicamp on such a basis they wound up signing Will Tye to a contract . . . Defensive tackle Tyrell Chavis, who played two years at Nassau CC before playing at Penn State, was one of 11 undrafted free agents signed by the Giants on Friday.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.