She is the wife of Chris Snee, and the daughter of Tom Coughlin, and she was walking on Cloud 9 with her husband and two young boys on another day when New York and now MetLife Stadium cheered the two-time champion coach of the Giants.
“It’s a dream come true,” Kate Snee said. “It doesn’t even seem real yet, to be honest. I get choked up when I see it again. I think it’s what he deserves.”
If the criticism of her father, the Tom Must Go columns written over the years, didn’t sting him all that much, it sure stung his loved ones.
“Literally, I don’t know anybody who spends more time with their work than he does — because he cares,” Kate Snee said. “He cares about the team. He cares about his players, he cares about everyone.”
Just then her younger son, Cooper, walked over and added: “Because the Giants are the champions.”
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Kate was asked if she was happy the more human side of her father emerged later in his career.
“Maybe people started to see more of that side of him,” she said. “I don’t think he changed too much what he was. I just think maybe people started to … instead of thinking about all the negative things, think about the positive things and really see the type of person that he is. The players started to maybe respond to the person that he is, and instead of thinking, ‘This is negative about him,’ thinking, ‘Look at this guy, this is a positive about him,’ and going that way.”
She could not find the words to express what it means that her father is now a legendary figure in Giants history.
“There’s nobody more deserving than Tom Coughlin,” she said. “He’s a great dad. He’s a great grandfather, and he’s a great coach. It’s what he deserves. And I know he doesn’t pay attention to a lot, but there’s been a lot of negative talk about him in the past for whatever reason, and I think he’s basically hopefully shut that up. … I think it’s just wonderful. It’s great.”
She was informed that her father likely would be in the Hall of Fame now, and asked if that was hard to believe.
“Not at all,” she said. “I’ve thought that for a long time.”