New York Giants Coach, Players Honor Service Members Killed in Afghanistan Terrorist Attack

New York Giants coach Joe Judge and his players were seen on the sidelines Sunday wearing hats honoring U.S. military members killed in the terrorist attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan last week.

To show support at the game Sunday night for the 13 U.S. service members, Judge was pictured wearing a red U.S. Marine Corps hat and the players wore camouflage hats. The Giants were playing the New England Patriots in the team’s final preseason game.

The team published pictures of Judge and the players.

Salute to service 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/MNFMiMPSzq

— New York Giants (@Giants) August 29, 2021

After the game, Judge was asked about his hate, where he explained the importance of wearing the hat and paying tribute:

Look, obviously we lost 13 soldiers this past week in Afghanistan. I get pictures all the time of people wearing Giants hats, people wearing Giants T-shirts, letters from all over, soldiers overseas, letting us know, ‘Hey, we’re overseas, but we’re rooting for you.’ It’s great that they’re rooting for our team, I think it’s more important we all acknowledge we’re on the same team and that we’re supporting them as well. So we appreciate everything they do, we want to see them all come home safely and obviously we don’t want to see anyone lose their lives, you know, needlessly.

So I’d say in terms of wearing the hats, I thought it was a good opportunity to just go ahead and draw some awareness that there were 11 Marines that lost their lives this week, one Naval, one Army as well. We had all three services represented at the coin toss with the captains going out there. Our team, we stay very in tune to the first responders, the military, the people that really make what we do, which is coach and play a game, possible.

I think it’s important to keep that in perspective that, look, the reality is, it’s serious to us because it’s serious business, right? That’s what it is. It’s a production business, we’re paid very handsomely to go out there and do a job as a player or a coach, but at the end day it is a game, it’s entertainment, right? That’s what it is. Now, they’re playing life or death. It’s important that we keep in perspective what we do and that we stay very grateful and we acknowledge what they’re doing on a daily basis so that we can go out there and do this professionally and be involved with the game.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY – AUGUST 29: head coach Joe Judge of the New York Giants looks on from the bench during the game against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium on August 29, 2021 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

The Patriots ended up winning the game by two points, 22-20.

Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.