Mark Cannizzaro

Mark Cannizzaro

NFL

Tom Coughlin deserves chance to go out a winner

With the mounting losses for the Giants comes the predictable speculation about change in the organization. It is a process that has been part of the conveyor belt in team sports since NFL players wore leather helmets: Team loses, someone must pay, fire the coach.

Rinse and repeat.

Before the Giants’ 27-21 loss to the Bears on Thursday night in Chicago reached halftime, the NFL Network was pumping up a promo about upcoming “news’’ regarding the “future’’ of Giants coach Tom Coughlin.

When that news was delivered, it essentially said Coughlin would be given the chance to stay on for 2014, the final year of his contract, by Giants ownership if he chose to do so.

No disrespect intended toward the network or its report, but that was not exactly breaking news. Not for anyone who knows the way John Mara and Giants ownership operates.

However this miserable Giants season ends from its current 0-6 state — name your final record, 3-13, 5-11, 7-9, even 8-8 — Coughlin should not go out this way. He deserves better than to end his career with the team he helped bring two Super Bowl titles in five years on this losing note, provided this spiral to nowhere continues for the Giants.

This is not to say Coughlin, who will be 68 next season, should be sent off with some sort of Mariano Rivera farewell tour (he would not tolerate that anyway). But as bad as 0-6 has been and appears to be headed before this lost season mercifully ends for the Giants, Coughlin has earned the right to coach out his contract and see if he can turn the team back into a winner.

He deserves the chance to go out a winner.

Coughlin has done none of the things that usually get coaches fired, beginning with losing the respect of the locker room (usually the first stage of a coach’s exit). There does not appear to be any evidence Giants players are not playing hard for Coughlin. They’re simply not playing very well.

“Coach Coughlin hasn’t blinked,’’ cornerback Terrell Thomas said. “He’s done a great job leading us, keeping hope alive in us, motivating us — no matter the circumstances. Even after these loses, he gives us hope and makes us believe and keeps everyone holding each other accountable.

“We believe in him. We play for coach Coughlin. We’re not going to turn on each other.’’

It means nothing to Giants fans, because it does not add another win or two for them in the standings, but one thing Coughlin has done with this team as its season has inexplicably spiraled toward stunning oblivion is hold his locker room together.

The chances of teams having players pointing fingers of blame at each other is extremely high for teams which, like the Giants, entered a season with high expectations and failed as spectacularly as the Giants have.

For what it’s worth, Coughlin has navigated his way through the myriad of disappointments and kept his players from sniping at each other while trying to cover derrieres.

“Coach is doing the best job he can of keeping his composure and keeping this locker room together, keeping this team together,’’ safety Antrel Rolle said. “When you’re 0-6 a whole lot of things can turn on you. A lot of things can take a wrong turn. Players can turn on players, coaches can turn on players, players can turn on coaches. That’s one thing that we haven’t done in this locker room and one thing we will never do.

“[Coughlin] is keeping us positive, keeping us fighting, staying upbeat. But Coach is human just like rest of us and of course he’s extremely disappointed.’’

Coughlin on Friday predictably staved off a question about himself, how taxing this season has been and whether he’s thinking about his future, saying, “I don’t want to go there. How do you think an 0-6 head coach feels?’’

“My whole focus is on the team and our players,’’ he said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to help them.’’

In the meantime, with the next game not until Oct. 21, Coughlin’s instruction to his players and coaches was to get away from football for the weekend and relax.

“I asked them to do that, coaches included: ‘Think. Get some rest and think about the situation we’re in and how you can be a part of the solution,’ ’’ he said.

Asked if he gave himself the same marching orders, Coughlin cracked his first smile of the 16-minute press conference and said, “I haven’t had that lecture yet with myself.’’