Look at me. This is how I did it. This is how I want you to do it.
It hasn’t been the Giants’ way on their offensive line, but it is now. This is what Marc Colombo brings to the meeting room and practice field. He is 6ft 8in tall and can take any of his players and move them to wherever he wants them to go.
For the moment.
“It’s important for them to have a visual of what it is exactly instead of watching another guy do a technique that I was teaching,” Colombo said. “I’m able to go in and do it myself, at least now. I’m 41 years old, so I’m not getting any younger. ”
This is the new way of doing the Giants and their offensive line, with Colombo, an assistant hired by Joe Judge, charged with remaking a unit that for years has been in decline. It is not intimidation that Colombo is looking for, but rather intensity and passion by osmosis.
“As far as being here with us, he’s one of us,” said goaltender Will Hernandez, entering his third year with the Giants. “He’s one of the guys. Of course, you separate that title. When he is a coach, he is a coach. You have this line of respect. But it’s cool to have someone who looks a lot like everyone in this room and understands that. He just understands. ”
Colombo was a 2002 first-round pick for the Bears at Boston College – where he was a teammate with Giants Ring of Honor inductee Chris Snee – but his career never took place in Chicago. He suffered a patella dislocation and femoral nerve damage after 10 games as a rookie, missed the entire 2003 season and half of 2004. The Bears gave him up after one game in 2005 and he was out of the game. football until November of this season when the Cowboys – and Bill Parcells – called up.
“Coach Parcells, I mean, he jump-started my career,” Colombo said. “He saw something in me when I was injured and no other team wanted to risk me. I owe him a lot. He pushed me to be something better than I ever thought possible. Always beholden to this. I would run through a wall if he asked me to, right away. ”
Colombo retired in April 2012 and figured he would play his music and move on. His heavy metal band, Free Reign, was rock, with Colombo playing rhythm guitar and singing vocals. He’s a big, big fan of Metallica, citing Master Of Puppets, Injustice For All, Ride The Lightning, and Kill ‘Em All as his favorite songs.
Jason Garrett, the Cowboys offensive coordinator and later interim head coach of Colombo’s later years in Dallas, was skeptical of Colombo’s music – “maybe a little harsh on me” – but lacked a such apprehension about the player and the person. Garrett joked that he told Colombo he would give him “a few years” in the rock and roll world before calling him back to train his offensive line.
Garrett hired Colombo in 2016 and five years later he went to great lengths to make him the first Judge Giants staff member.
“I would say that with Marc the deciding factor wasn’t his past experience with Jason,” Judge said. “The deciding factor was that he was a great coach. Her body of work when you turn the tape on and watch how her guys play with technique, execution and toughness is ultimately what was the deciding factor.
Getting Garrett’s blessing certainly didn’t hurt, though.
“He was one of those guys who was just a natural leader on our offensive line and throughout our squad,” Garrett said. “He just played the game the right way. You talk about wanting guys who are going to fight, guys who are smart, tough, disciplined, and play the game at a high level. Marc did that. ”
The Giants are hopeful that some of the offensive line excellence Colombo helped cultivate in Dallas will accompany him to the Giants, where talent and level of experience are suspect and the use of rookies (Andrew Thomas and maybe Shane Lemieux or Matt Peart), Young On the Move (Nick Gates) and a fellow veteran (Cam Fleming), as well as the disengagement of Nate Solder, is a tall order.
“It’s a work ethic and it’s a bad attitude to go out there and kind of impose our will on the defense,” Colombo said. “Flying is non-negotiable and it comes directly from Coach Judge and this organization. They demand it here. ”
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