This next one, this last one, New York’s Team versus America’s Team with all of New York Rexcluding Gang Green Nation and most of America watching, for the division title, for the playoffs, for the season, should not be on Tom Coughlin.
It should be on Coughlin’s players.
The 2011 Giants have played 900 minutes of football, alternately inspiring and indefensible football, and only these next 60 minutes, these last 60 minutes against the Cowboys Sunday night, will truly define who they are, and what they are made of.
It will not be a referendum on who Coughlin is, or what he is made of.
Barring an epic Miracle of the Meadowlands III humiliation, these next 60 minutes, these last 60 minutes, no longer need to be about whether Tom Must Go or Tom Must Not Go.
It should be on which Giants players go, and which Giants players stay. So I ask them: Are you champs, or are you chumps? Do you have an indomitable will, a refuse-to-lose defiance that has vanished since Super Bowl XLII when it comes time to finish?
Can you reach down and summon every last ounce of New York Football Giants Pride that your late, great owners, Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch, would have wished from you?
Can you visualize a warm, sweet New Year’s Night love affair with your fans inside MetLife Stadium less than 24 hours after the ball drops in Times Square?
Will the image of Jerry Jones whooping it up on the Cowboys sidelines be enough to scare you straight? Will you be able to look yourselves in the mirror during another winter of your discontent if you allow Tony Romo to beat you with a bruised passing hand?
Will you remember the anguish inside your souls sitting helplessly inside the visiting locker room at FedEx Field knowing you had no one to blame but yourselves for missing the 2010 playoffs?
Will you finally have the courage to break through whatever psychological barrier has debilitated you and shoo away the haunting, taunting ghosts of Collapses Past? Is it asking too much for each and every one of you to commit to be all in one more time so true blue Giants fans can be treated to their first home playoff game in three years?
The argument for Tom Must Not Go was there for all to see in The Battle of New York. And in the final few minutes, after he had nearly been kneecapped by D.J. Ware, a telling scene unfolded.
The Fox television cameras showed vice president of Medical Services Ronnie Barnes and team physician Dr. Russell Warren attempting to examine an agitated Coughlin, standing on a barking, 65-year-old hamstring by the bench and refusing to take his eyes off the playing field. Then “No Toughness, No Championship” Tom limped back to his team.
“He’s not exactly the ideal patient, is he?” Giants vice president of Communications Pat Hanlon said to the medical men.
The inmates must never run anyone’s asylum. But Eli Manning wants Coughlin back, and there is widespread respect for Coughlin among key veterans.
A Miracle of the Meadowlands III could prompt ownership, which has a history of erring on the side of stability, to decide that choking away another season is unacceptable. That someone should have to pay a price for a 2-6 second half, and it is time for a new voice and younger blood on the sidelines. But Coughlin didn’t have any Dream Team, Andy Reid did. And Reid’s Eagles have nothing to play for now.
The Tom Must Go crowd would emphasize the Giants could not secure a playoff berth even with Manning enjoying a career season.
The Tom Must Not Go crowd would counter while there is no crying in football, you try winning a division after you lose your best cornerback, your middle linebacker, your left tackle, one of your premier pass rushers, your starting running back for a month, your center for three weeks, your tight end for The Battle of New York, and a diminished defensive captain for most of the season.
And the Giants are still standing. As Kings of New York. Coughlin never blinked. So I ask the players: Will you blink?
“I know we gotta win next week. … We got to. … We gotta get in the playoffs, for everybody” Dave Tollefson said.
For everybody?
“For everyone,” Tollefson said. “This organization, we gotta get in the playoffs. We’re too good of a team to be sitting home.”
I said to Tollefson, one of the true Giants: “You said that last year too.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Well, [bleep] gets old saying it. So let’s not say it anymore, let’s make it happen.”
Make Tom Must Stay happen.