Postcards from Tucson: Here’s what Giants have in store for them on Arizona getaway — from someone who knows

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TUCSON, Arizona – It was late July and Giants trainer Joe Judge turned the tables: he asked me a question.

“So tell me about Tucson. How is it?”

Judge did the rounds with Giants Beat writers ahead of the season and conducted one-on-one interviews to get a preview of the season. But Judge didn’t talk about Tucson to anyone else.

This was long before the Giants season got out of hand, especially after a brutal 20-9 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. The Giants are 4-8 and any hope of reaching the playoffs is as good as gone.

Back then there was still hope. And Judge wasn’t thinking of taking a short break to clear the team’s head towards the end of the season. He was considering bringing the Giants to Tucson between the Miami and Los Angeles games. The idea, he said, was to keep the team in a warm climate instead of going from the Miami heat to cold New Jersey and on to LA. It would also be beneficial to give the players’ bodies more time to adjust to the time zone change. Essentially eliminate jet lag.

Even if it wasn’t a short vacation – at least not originally – I know a little bit about getting out of New Jersey and fleeing to Tucson. In 2009 I left NJ for the University of Arizona. I lived in Tucson for nearly 10 years, between college and working for the Arizona Daily Star, where my career began with high school football games and La Fiesta de los Vaqueros (also known as the Tucson Rodeo). Finally, I made my way back to New Jersey.

I never thought it would bring me back to Arizona to cover the New York Giants.

The Giants arrived in Tucson on Sunday evening. You will stay in a luxurious resort and spa in the most beautiful part of the city, including a pool and golf course. You’ll be here by Saturday – enough time to explore the wonders of the Sonoran Desert, even if most of your days are occupied with exercises, meetings, and movie reviews. The players have Tuesday off.

Judge has no obvious ties to the university, though Wildcats trainer Jedd Fisch – a New Jersey native and Hannover Park High alum – spent a year as the quarterbacks trainer of Bill Belichick in New England in 2020. Judge coached Rob Gronkowski with the Patriots for seven years, and Gronk counts himself among perhaps the most prominent Arizona soccer alums. (Stories of Gronk’s party antics in a college town are as entertaining and hilarious as you think.) The Giants also designed an Arizona runback at Gary Brightwell this year, which mostly plays on special teams.

On Monday, Judge praised the Wildcats soccer staff for being “very, very accommodating.” Arizona set them up at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, which expanded by $ 72 million in 2013. You’ll practice in an indoor exercise facility built just a few years ago for $ 16.5 million – crucial for a team that trains in the 100-degree summer heat during training camp.

Richter said it has been a seamless transition so far.

“Really, everything was top notch and these guys did everything we asked,” said Judge. “You leaned back. You couldn’t be more hospitable to us …

“One thing about getting into a big college like this, these guys have pretty much everything you can think of. Firstly because of the functionality of the use and the larger roster, but also because of the recruitment, the gun war they must have, every bells and whistles that one can show a recruit has to be visible when he shows up for an official visit. The only thing they have here are a lot of facilities and it’s a beautiful property. ”The customer review has been automatically translated from German.

Not to be entirely “in my time” here … but in my day (when I first came to Tucson) the soccer team didn’t even have all of these bells and whistles. They didn’t even have their own facility. You had to share with the basketball team! Their lockers were in the McKale Center – the historic basketball arena – and the entire team lugged their football equipment onto the (uncovered) practice field every day, brutal in this summer heat.

But I didn’t mention that when Judge asked me about Tucson. I raved about the weather – beautiful at this time of year, 70-80 degrees during the day, 50-60 degrees at night – and the hotels and resorts.

But I emphasized the most important thing: the food. Tucson is the most underrated food city in America. My first stop on exiting the airport was El Guero Canelo, a local Mexican takeout. I ordered their signature Sonoran hot dog, a wonderful bacon-wrapped hot dog in a sweet bun with beans, tomatoes, onions, mayonnaise, mustard and a jalapeño sauce. I was told I became a man when I had my bar mitzvah at 13. Really, I think it was the first time I ate a Sonoran hot dog.

I like to think that I convinced Judge to book the trip – which the Giants did sometime in August. I probably (definitely) didn’t influence anything.

But it doesn’t matter.

I’m just happy to be back.

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Zack Rosenblatt can be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com.

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