Ben McAdoo, a man who left my New York Giants in tatters after the team fired him midway through the 2017 season, has inexplicably landed himself a coaching gig with the New England Patriots, according to multiple reports.
A man whose brief head coaching tenure was so fraught with rage-inducing decisions that I call him “Ben McAdoo-doo” has somehow convinced the Patriots to hire him as their offensive assistant coach, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
McAdoo had a ton of promise his first year with the Giants. After coming to the team as the former quarterbacks coach of Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, McADon’t had a solid run as the Giants offensive coordinator from 2014-2015. So solid that the Giants hired him to become the head coach in 2016.
McAdoo had a great regular season run in 2016, leading the Giants to a 11-5 record and a playoff berth in his first year as skipper. But that’s where the fun ended. (RELATED: Legendary NFL QB Boomer Esiason Says Bill Belichick Turned Down Falcons Head Coaching Job)
The Giants got slaughtered in the first round by McAdoo’s old friends the Green Bay Packers. The game will live on in infamy as “the boat game” after Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard and a number of other Giants stars were pictured partying on a boat just a week before the big contest.
January 8, 2017 — Five Years Ago Today — The Giants went on a boat, then lost to the Packers in the Wild Card game at Lambeau.
They have won 22 of the 80 games they have played since. pic.twitter.com/0vng0ZBtuy
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 8, 2022
The incident essentially cursed the team considering the Giants have only been back to the playoffs once and have posted a negative point differential every year since the infamous snapshot.
The next year McAdoo bottomed out. The supposed offensive mastermind oversaw a team that ranked 31st in points scored, and he lost 10 of the first 12 games before the Giants fired him. But not before he left a little parting gift.
In his last game McAdoo made the bewildering decision to bench franchise legend Eli Manning, snapping his remarkable iron man consecutive games started streak at 210 games.
PHILADELPHIA, PA – SEPTEMBER 24: Eli Manning #10 of the New York Giants and head coach Ben McAdoo wait for the review on a touchdown scored in the second quarter by the New York Giants on September 24, 2017 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The touchdown was called back and the New York Giants did not score on the possession against the Philadelphia Eagles. Elsa/Getty Images
Who was the best quarterback in Giants history benched for? A young stud with something to prove? A future franchise quarterback? Nope. Geno. Freaking. Smith.
OAKLAND, CA – DECEMBER 03: Geno Smith #3 of the New York Giants is stripped of the ball by Bruce Irvin #51 of the Oakland Raiders during their NFL game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on December 3, 2017 in Oakland, California. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
No disrespect to Smith, whose impressive career resurrection efforts led to him earning the NFL’s 2022 Comeback Player of the Year Award. But at the time, on a one-year $1.3 million contract, Smith was considered little more than a solid backup.
I strongly believe in forgiveness so I’m willing to offer that to McAdoo for tanking my favorite team’s best quarterback’s career and sending us into a death spiral that we’ve never quite recovered from. But I’m most certainly not willing to forget it.
Everyone deserves a path to redemption, but McAdoo’s ought to be a hell of a lot longer than it is. If he wants to keep working in the NFL, he should have to start over as a water boy.
Good luck, New England. He’s your problem now.