Tom Coughlin: Rising To the Occasion

March 2008
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March 6th, 2008 · No Comments

A year ago today there were reports flying around the NFL that the head coach of the New York Giants would be fired and that he was on the proverbial “hot seat” The head coach I am referring to is Tom Coughlin who was took the wrath of every single reporter in the so called dredged “New York Media” and every single so called “journalist” called for his termination. The so called “NFL reporters” also said that he was about to be terminated at the end of the 2007 season.

It was just four months ago that they labeled the December 23^rd game against the Bills has a “make or break game” for Coughlin. Let’s run down the negatives that hampered Coughlin during the 2006 season. He was labeled as “un media friendly”, was called out by his starting tight end and was also called out by his starting running back. The same starting running back, Tiki Barber also announced mid season that he was retiring after the year which we all know, was a huge distraction against this team.

Despite all the criticism, Coughlin still made the playoffs and posted an 8-8 record. We all have to agree that an 8-8 record isn’t great but then again with everything this team had against them, how can you fault them for having a sub par season? They had a very good 11-5 season in 2005 so there definitely wasn’t a track record of having sub par seasons besides his first season as the Giants head coach.

The big flaw against Coughlin was that he never got out of the Wild Card with the Giants and this was the main reason, “reporters” called for Coughlin to be let go. Heading into the 2007 season the Giants again had a big distraction which was Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan holding out in training camp due to pondering retirement. The big question I have is, do you really think when your best player may retire that this may distract the head coach?

Despite all that and a rambling Tiki Barber critiquing every bad play this team does while he sits next to Chris Collinsowrth, the Giants and the now media friendly Tom Coughlin still went on to silence the critics and win the Superbowl. The fact remains that when you play in New York or coach New York the spotlight will be on you more than it would be in any other city and the harsh reality is when the Giants do have a few bad games the so called “real media” will be asking for his release and will bring up the fact that he only has a .536 career win percentage. You have to love New York….