Coughlin will be back as Giants head coach next season if he so desires, and no one should be surprised if he coaches them until he’s 70.
How do I know this?
I listened to general manager Jerry Reese on Tuesday.
Reese gave his State of the Giants bye-week address and made it sound as if the rest of the organization might be 2-6, not Coughlin.
And it wouldn’t matter if Coughlin is 67 or 37.
Reese said he believes in Eli Manning (“After 10 years, he didn’t forget how to play his position all of a sudden”), and he said he believes in Coughlin at a time when the Giants have been granted new life by the sorry state of the NFC East, and gave strong indications ownership does as well.
As it should.
“Coach Coughlin, he’s a heckuva football coach, and he didn’t forget how to coach either at this point. Regardless of what our record looks like, he’s still an outstanding football coach,” Reese said.
Asked to address that age-old question about Coughlin, Reese said:
“Age has nothing to do with Coach Coughlin. Coach Coughlin is a tremendous football coach. His age has nothing to do with it.”
Coughlin, asked on WFAN if he gets annoyed over concerns about his age, said he would challenge anyone to observe him working at five in the morning.
“Has the game passed us by? I don’t think so,” Coughlin said.
During the 0-6 nightmare, Reese and Coughlin commiserated with one another and confronted each other at the same time.
“It’s a broad spectrum, from crying on each other’s shoulder, to being contentious,” Reese said, and smiled. “We were very honest in our meetings. We don’t sugarcoat anything, we talk out loud. I remember one morning, I can’t remember what the game was, but obviously we had lost the game, and I was like, ‘Coach, the sun came up.’ He’s like, ‘Really, it did?’ We work well together.”
He has the utmost faith in and respect for Coughlin in the here and now.
“Coach Coughlin in a big spot, this is a big spot for him, I would never bet against him,” Reese said. “He’s done a really nice job, because when you’re 0-6, your team can just say, ‘You know what? I’m throwing in the towel.’ But our players have continued to play hard and continued to battle.”
Asked later about where the team sticking together through this difficult time begins, Reese said simply: “Tom Coughlin.”
Asked to elaborate, Reese said: “This is not Tom’s first rodeo. He’s been around for a while. The passion that he brings to the table, all of our players can see that, our owners can see that, and that’s never wavered with him. And for him to keep this team together, I think that shows how much respect that the players have for him, and what he does for this organization.”
Reese said ownership has been supportive.
“I still think they believe in what we’re trying to do here,” he said.
Reese offered no mea culpas, for the aging of the offensive line, for David Wilson, for the decline of Jason Pierre-Paul and the pass rush, for the Super Bowl countdown calendar, for saying “everyone is on notice” at the start of training camp, for the 0-6 start.
“Whatever you say that’s wrong, you’re right,” he said.
If the Giants miss the playoffs, that would make four times in five seasons, not the standard for the Giants. But you don’t dismiss the fact Reese and Coughlin have won two Super Bowls together. Neither is going anywhere. Nor should they. The 2-6 GM of the New York Football Giants vowed to do better, and is heartened by the weak state of the NFC East.
“We’re still in it,” Reese said.
He still believes. He believes in Tom Coughlin, as much as anyone or anything else.