It’s been an emotional week for the New York Giants. On Friday, offensive lineman Zach Fulton announced his retirement. Fulton is the third Giant in four days to step away from football.
Fulton starred at the University of Tennessee before he was drafted by the Chiefs in 2014. The guard started 44 games over the past three years with the Houston Texans.
Offensive lineman Joe Looney and linebacker Todd Davis were the two other Giants who hung up their cleats this week. Looney retired less than a week after signing with New York.
Giants head coach Joe Judge is known to run a grueling training camp. Judge’s coaching staff punishes mistakes with running and calisthenics. His disciplinarian approach appears to be rubbing some veterans the wrong way. After New York released Kelvin Benjamin last week, the tight end said he’s done with pro football.
#Giants OL Zach Fulton has retired as the bizarre trend of veteran retirements continues.
Sources tell me HC Joe Judge is “desperate to be the toughest guy in the room”. Judge would randomly walk up to players in the facility and ask for push-ups to ‘build toughness’.
— Wesley Steinberg (@WesSteinberg) August 6, 2021
Judge spoke to the media about Looney and Davis’ retirements on Thursday.
“These are tough decisions on guys. As you get vets later in their career, they started training camp, it’s not uncommon for this to happen,” Judge said. “Now, you don’t want it to happen, but you have to respect the decision each person makes for their family. I’d say in both these cases, not to speak for the players, but both of them had family situations that they had to attend to, and that was a large part of the decision.”
Fulton was set to make $1.2 million this year with the Giants. He agreed to a one-year deal with New York this offseason.
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