It is the very last thing on Tom Coughlin’s mind, because there is the small matter of the NFC East title showdown Sunday night against the Cowboys.
“Can I take care of this week and this game first?” he asks. “Why do we have to ask that question?”
Coughlin is walking, his limp from his sideline mishap mostly gone, from the indoor practice facility back to the Timex Performance Center to get back to his preparation for the Cowboys.
Before I can remind him that his future is a widely discussed topic around these parts, he tells me: “Yeah, I do.”
You do?
“Sure,” he says. “I do.”
Have you gotten indication that you will?
“No,” Coughlin said.
Then why do you expect to?
“I just expect to,” he said. “That’s the nature of the business. I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t.”
The Tom Must Go crowd would argue that, if he loses, it will be three straight years out of the playoffs. That, if he loses, he will have presided over another second-half collapse.
That Eli Manning is having a career year.
I don’t have the time to give him their argument.
“Let’s talk about this after the game,” Coughlin said.
I managed to get in a couple of last questions: Do you still (at age 65) have the same passion for this job that you’ve always had?
“Yes, I do!” Coughlin said. “Sure, I do. I wouldn’t be doing it.”
And you plan on doing it for a while.
“We’ll talk after the game,” he said again.
You want to coach this team next year, correct?
“Yeah,” Coughlin said.
And from what I have been able to gather, most of his key players, starting with Manning, want him to coach them next year.
“I think it’s gonna be his decision,” Justin Tuck told The Post. “If he wants to be back, I think he’s gonna be back.”
Why do you think it’s his decision?
“I don’t know … he’s 65 years old, maybe he wants to do something different,” Tuck said. “If Coach Coughlin wants to be back, I think he has that choice to be back.
“You never know what’s going on as far as what his thought process is, but I don’t see a reason to fire him, I guess. But I don’t get paid to make those decisions.”
Even if the team doesn’t make the playoffs?
“I don’t get paid to make those decisions,” Tuck said. “I think he’s done the best job he can do considering some of the shortcomings we’ve had injury-wise, personnel-wise.”
Tuck has no inkling what the Giants decision-makers are thinking.
“My sense is guys enjoy playing for Coach Coughlin,” Tuck said. “We have our disagreements, just like any other team. I think a lot of times fans or media, whoever else, kind of misunderstand the fact that just because he’s your head coach doesn’t mean he’s gonna be your best friend.”
Or father-in-law.
“As far as preparing us for week in and week out, I’ve only had one high school coach and one college coach,” said son-in-law Chris Snee, who has had only one NFL coach since being drafted in 2004. “But I’m saying — I don’t think anyone could prepare us better for games every week, and not just the relationship with him but the relationship with all the other coaches that I have and the other guys have. You want to stick together as long as possible.”
To Snee, Tom Coughlin is no 65-year-old father-in-law at work. He’s a head coach whose energy belies his age.
“He’s out there chirping and running around just like he’s a 40-year-old,” Snee said.