Bill Cowher is going to be the next coach of the Giants.
So says someone fairly close with Cowher: former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis.
“I believe he’s going to be with the Giants,” Bettis said yesterday on Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio. “I think that’s the team that he really coveted. This is where he always wanted to be. The Mara family, he’s been very close to them.
“He’s known them very well and was on the inside track, before the Giants won the Super Bowl, for that job and I think he’s holding out for that opportunity if it presents itself.”
Asked what would have happened if the Giants in 2007 didn’t make their Super Bowl run under Tom Coughlin, Bettis said Cowher would have moved into the picture.
“He would have definitely gotten the job, and if Coughlin doesn’t get that team back in the right direction next year, I think they’ll pull the plug,” Bettis said.
Cowher did not respond to a request for comment.
Cowher following the 2006 season left the Steelers and the coaching profession and currently works as a CBS studio analyst. He has been linked to several head-coaching jobs — Carolina always is mentioned — and has steadfastly declared he may never get back in.
If Cowher does return to coaching, the Giants already have one ingredient Bettis knows is a prerequisite: Eli Manning.
“That’s where he’s got his eyes,” Bettis said of the Giants. “Let me tell you the one thing I do know. I do know, because he told me, he doesn’t want to go anywhere that doesn’t have an established quarterback.
“He said he’s tired of doing the ‘let me find a quarterback’ thing because in Pittsburgh he never had a quarterback until [Ben] Roethlisberger and then he was like, ‘Hey, I’m ready to go. I finally got a quarterback.’ That’s not what he’s going to do again. He’s going to have an established quarterback wherever he goes.”
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Marc Ross, the Giants director of college scouting, interviewed on Wednesday for the vacant Seahawks general manager position but has been crossed off Seattle’s list. It appears former Titans general manager Floyd Reese is the favorite.