Pat Shurmur: Fool’s Gold? “You can’t fake football”

Don’t tell New York Giants coach Pat Shurmur that his team’s hot streak, four wins in five games after a 1-7 start is ‘Fool’s Gold’ that shouldn’t be believed because it’s the end of the season.

“You can’t fake football. There’s no ‘fool’s gold’ in my mind. You put a ball down in front of all those people and you’re on the field with 10 other guys, and you’ve got a job to do – you can’t fake that,” Shurmur said. “There’s no fooling, there’s no golding, there’s nothing. You cannot fake football. I don’t care when you’re playing it, whether it’s the first game of the year, the middle of the year, the end of the year, I think we all want to go out and perform well.”

Shurmur and GM Dave Gettleman have turned over roughly three-quarters of the roster, but Shurmur has said recently that he feels like most of the 2019 roster is in place. He also feels it is important for the players to know that.

“I do. Again, I’m just doing the math, but it’s a unique situation when you’re here in the first part of December and only 13 guys are on the roster that had a Giants helmet on last year. That’s unique. I think that’s the lowest number in the league right now by a few, and we like our team and we like what our team is doing, so yes, the bulk of the guys will be here,” Shurmur said. “I can say that with some certainty. We all know this, though, no team is ever exactly the same. Guys leave in free agency, you get free agents, you draft, we’re going to have a draft and get some new players. I think the important thing is we focus on the excitement of playing these games, and worry about that stuff later.”