Giant Football Blog

Talk to strangers

Before this spring is through, coach Tom Coughlin said he'll make sure to sit down for private conversations with all seven Giants draft picks. Prior to yesterday's start of the two-day rookie mini-camp, Coughlin showed some urgency by making sure he visited with Mario Manningham for what the young receiver called "a long talk." That won't be it as far as these chats.

"I'm sure we will continue," Coughlin said. The Giants New York Giants are serious about cultivating Manningham's talents and turning him into a productive player and are leaving nothing to chance. Manningham dropped like a stone in a pond during the NFL draft before the Giants selected him in the third round, too late to befit one of the most prolific receivers in Michigan history. Continue

Tom Coughlin's changes fit for a title

Tom Coughlin invited Eli Manning into his office for a chat recently. They each had the smiles that have been on their faces permanently since the night of Feb.3 in Phoenix. Of course, there was even more reason to be in a good mood. They had just finished up a meeting with Tiffany & Co. to discuss the design of the Giants' Super Bowl rings.

"Eli was coming down by the office, so I just said, 'Stop in,' so he stopped in and we talked for a couple of minutes," an extremely relaxed Coughlin said at the league meetings on Wednesday. "I think as he was going out the door he said something to the effect, 'You know, this is pretty good. I think we ought to do this again.' Off he went." Continue

Tom Coughlin ecstatic about new deal

Coaching the Giants has been the "dream of a lifetime" for Tom Coughlin. And he's ecstatic about getting the chance to live the dream for a few more years.

"I was thrilled to become the head coach of the New York Giants in 2004," Coughlin said in a statement released Saturday by the team. "It would be difficult for me to capture the emotions for the opportunity I was given back in 1988 to be an assistant coach with the Giants. And then to have the opportunity to be the head coach was the fulfillment of a dream of a lifetime. Continue

Giants give Tom Coughlin new deal

Tom Coughlin finally got his reward for leading the Giants to a Super Bowl championship - a new contract that makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the NFL.

Coughlin and the Giants finalized a new four-year, $21 million deal Friday afternoon, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations, and an official announcement will be made Saturday. The contract was in the works for weeks and inevitable since Dec. 23, when the Giants clinched a spot in the playoffs. One year after giving him a one-year extension that was hardly a ringing endorsement, ownership was ready to commit to the 61-year-old Coughlin for the long term. Continue

Coughlin extension appears ready to go

Coach Tom Coughlin's much anticipated contract extension could finally be announced today, according to someone familiar with the progress of negotiations between the Giants and Coughlin's agent. The person, who requested anonymity because talks were ongoing yesterday, said the delay is due to some phrasing with legal ramifications that must be worked out.

The person said the contract will be a four-year deal worth $21 million that will keep Coughlin under contract through the 2011 season. Meanwhile, the team hosted free-agent cornerback Brian Kelly yesterday. The former Buccaneer left without a contract, according to someone who spoke to one of the parties involved in the negotiations. The person, who asked not to be named, did not indicate if Kelly would eventually sign with the Giants. Continue

Tom Coughlin to get 4 years, $21M

Tom Coughlin's new contract with the Giants covers the next four seasons, is worth about $21 million and moves him into the upper echelon of the NFL's highest-paid coaches. There are only minor details and contract language to be completed, and the deal could be announced as early as next week.

The $5.25 million average will place Coughlin below only Mike Holmgren, who will earn around $8 million in what will be his final season in Seattle, and presumably New England's Bill Belichick, who agreed to an extension last season. Belichick was believed to be making $4.2 million per year in his old deal. Continue

Giants taking caring of their own

Giants co-owner John Mara described the impending contract extension for Tom Coughlin as "really not a sense of urgency," which is proof of the inevitability of the situation. The deal will get done in the next few days, and talks figure to heat up now that Mara, a member of the NFL's competition committee, has completed his meetings at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

Mara said there are no real problems with the negotiation, and, soon enough, Coughlin will agree to what will most likely be a four-year extension worth slightly more than $20 million. That would link Coughlin to the Giants until he turns 65 years old, a fitting conclusion to a coaching career that reached the pinnacle with this season's stunning Super Bowl title. Continue

Giants ready to reward Coughlin with extension

Tom Coughlin entered the 2007 season not knowing if it would be his last with the Giants. But after upsetting the previously unbeaten Patriots and winning Super Bowl XLII, the coach is close to reaping the rewards of a long-term extension.

Two league sources familiar with the Giants' situation told Newsday yesterday that there are few hurdles left in negotiations, and that a deal could be completed sometime this week. One source said the contract will be a four-year extension through the 2011 season. No financial terms were disclosed, but the deal likely will average about $5 million - or perhaps slightly higher - per season. Continue

Giants to open wallet for Tom Coughlin

In the moments after the Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys to advance to the NFC Championship Game, John Mara joked that the happiest man on the planet was probably Gary O'Hagan - Tom Coughlin's agent. With every win in the postseason, Coughlin's price went up. Imagine how much it's going to cost to keep him now.

The Giants' owners are about to find out, because they're expected to open negotiations early this week on a long-term deal for the coach they nearly fired 13 months ago. They've already had a preliminary conversation with O'Hagan, but the real talks are still coming. Continue

Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning reap sweet rewards following rocky times

It wasn't that long ago, actually mid-December, weeks before the Giants got on their world championship run, when it looked like Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning, after years of trying, just didn't have that special something it takes to make it in New York.

No coach and quarterback in the NFL had ever been ridiculed more than Coughlin and Manning. That's what made it even sweeter Monday that they were at the day-after news conference for the winning coach and Super Bowl MVP with a championship over the imperfect Patriots. The struggles were just part of the process. Continue

Tom Coughlin has Super makeover

It hasn't just been one of the story lines at this Super Bowl, it has been a huge story line for the whole Giants' season, that Tom Coughlin has, at the age of 61, turned into a good guy. People have jumped on that the way they used to jump on the idea that he wasn't a good guy. Or a good football coach. Extreme makeover, New York Giants edition!

It doesn't mean you were breaking a law if you tried to run him out after a couple of first-round losses, by the way. Coughlin has been around long enough to know that coaching or managing is a hardball league, especially in New York. We can talk about incentive clauses with Joe Torre and all the rest of it, but one of the reasons he isn't managing the Yankees anymore is because somebody finally wanted to talk to him about three first-round losses in five years with the biggest payroll in the history of the human race. If you can move Torre now, you could move Coughlin after last season. Continue

A long Tom ago

There were times, Mark McCabe remembers, when he wanted to pop by his coach's office every now and again and show him his scrapbook. Back at Royalton-Hartland High in upstate Middleport, he had been a pretty damn good player, good enough that the young coach had personally recruited him.

"I was all-conference, all-league, it wasn't like I'd just shown up and asked to be taught the game of football," says McCabe, now a private investigator in Rochester, then a young linebacker at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "I had a pretty good ego, I guess. I think we all did when we were young. And the coach, he'd just keep driving us. I wanted to tell him, 'I know what I'm doing!' " Continue

You'd better believe it: Coughlin's true blue

No Heartbreak last night for The Heartbreak Kid. Tom Coughlin is going to the Super Bowl for the first time as a head coach. Everyone said he was crazy to play to win against the Patriots, and everyone was wrong. He jump-started Eli Manning Eli Manning and gave his team the battle-tested swagger that carries them now to Super Bowl XLII against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. The Perfect Matchup against The Perfect team. "The real key," Coughlin said after Giants 23, Packers 20 in overtime, "is the heart of this team. The heart is definitely in the right place, and they are a team." Continue

Tom Coughlin finally feeling at home

This is the game that Tom Coughlin has never won, and he looked eager to win it Friday when he stepped to the microphones for a press conference simulcast on the NFL Network. He was pretty snazzy for an old curmudgeon, sporting a neatly knotted purple tie and an American flag pin stuck in his lapel. Not a gray hair was out of place. He smiled and bantered with the press.

He didn't want to talk about Eli Manning's left-hand glove, he said. He didn't want to talk about the weather in Green Bay. He didn't want to talk about the Patriots. He wanted to talk about the challenge of the Packers, and about his own team. Continue

Tom, the comeback kid

Tom Coughlin been The Heartbreak Kid of head coaches, 60 minutes from the Super Bowl in 1997 and again in 2000, and here he comes again, with a team just like him, a team that never stops coming at you. Coughlin got himself a Super Bowl ring when Scott Norwood went wide right, but Bill Parcells was the one who took those Giants to Super Bowl XXV. Coughlin, the wide receivers coach, toiled in the shadows.

He is 61 years old now, for what could finally be his moment in the sun will come at night, on a frigid field of dreams, in a place called Lambeau where history is frozen in time. And how ironic it is that the man who to this day holds a special place in Coughlin's heart - coached and drove those old Packers champions and forever haunts the place where The Comeback Kid who coaches the New York Giants New York Giants comes looking for a chance at his own little piece of immortality. Continue

Win over Buccaneers means Tom Coughlin will be back with Giants

Up in the press box, John Mara waited for the replay official to rule that cornerback R.W. McQuarters had intercepted a last-ditch bomb from Jeff Garcia along the right sideline. It had been a delicate tip-toe job by McQuarters, but now it set off a fist-pumping, stomping celebration from the usually staid Mara.

Mara had his playoff victory, 24-14, the first playoff win for the Giants in seven long years, the first for Tom Coughlin in eight. Monkeys had been excised from backs, right there inside Raymond James Stadium. And it was time, maybe, to announce what has become inevitable: Coughlin will be back with a contract extension next season. "If I told you, everybody else would be upset," Mara said, smiling, heading to the elevator and the locker room. "You'll just have to wait with the others." Continue

Win or lose against Tampa Bay, Tom Coughlin a lock to return to Giants

If there was a comeback coach of the year award, Tom Coughlin would get the trophy for reinventing himself. His third straight playoff season, even if it results in his third straight year of one and done, means he's not going anywhere.

One and done again is not acceptable for a team that has not won a playoff game the last six seasons. The Coughlin-Eli Manning regime needs to keep this season alive to inspire confidence and credibility that the coach and quarterback have what it takes to get the Giants deeper into January.But no matter what happens in the wild-card game Sunday against the Bucs, Manning will be back next year. And unless the Giants completely implode Sunday and have a mutiny on the sidelines, Coughlin will be back with a long-term contract extension when the season is over. Continue

Give Tom credit - He went for it

Alas, there was no perfect ending for Tom Coughlin on the night the Patriots achieved regular-season perfection. He lost the football game, 38-35, and he lost two starters early, linebacker Kawika Mitchell on defense, center Shaun O'Hara on offense, and cornerback Sam Madison late with an abdominal strain, status unknown on all. But good for him for giving New York a show, for choosing to fight the Patriots, for shooting for The Perfect Upset. Continue

Coughlin needs to hold chips for Bucs game

Tom Coughlin has learned to do a bunch of new things this year: showing his warm and fuzzy side to the players, getting along with the media, enjoying his first-ever Gatorade bath.

It looks as if the Giants' coach has added another talent to his repertoire. He has learned how to dance. Ask him how he'll deploy his personnel Saturday night against the Patriots, and all of a sudden, he turns into Fred Astaire. "It's difficult for me because we want to win every game," Coughlin said. "I'd rather think about how we can play against a very good opponent and have an opportunity to win."  Continue

Tom Coughlin's job likely safe

There are no guarantees coming out of the front office yet, but at this point, it would take a humiliating loss to the New England Patriots and an embarrassing blowout in the playoffs to cost Tom Coughlin his job. He's earned what likely will be a long-term contract extension after the season. And most of his players are glad he has done so.

"How many times do coaches have their job on the line and go 10-5?" said linebacker Antonio Pierce. "How many coaches have been in the playoffs three straight years? Our guy did it. Three years in a row." That puts Coughlin in some pretty select company. The only other coaches to lead their teams to the playoffs in each of the last three seasons are Bill Belichick (New England), Tony Dungy (Indianapolis) and Mike Holmgren (Seattle). No Giants coach had turned that hat trick since Bill Parcells from 1984-86. Continue

Victory earns playoff berth for Giants and likely extension for Tom Coughlin

Tom Coughlin endured three hours of cold driving rain, falling temperatures, high winds, snow blowing in his face, and even worse, another miserable performance by Eli Manning that had to send chills right through him. So, when the Giants finally secured their third straight playoff spot, which just about guarantees Coughlin will get a long-term contract extension - a humiliating loss in the wild-card round is the only thing that could get in the way - the last thing he really needed was the traditional Gatorade-and-ice shower.

But here came Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Antonio Pierce and Justin Tuck to put the finishing touches on the Giants' 38-21 victory over the Bills, the most important win in Coughlin's four years, by sneaking up from behind and emptying the bucket on him. "It was the chunks of ice that gave me some mixed thoughts about exactly what the intention was there," Coughlin said with a laugh. "It was a little chilly." Continue

Poor ending to season might end Tom Coughlin's tenure with Giants

Tom Coughlin could be coaching for his job Sunday afternoon in Buffalo. It's not that simple, of course, and certainly no win-or-else ultimatum has been handed down from his Giants bosses. But it would be easy to connect the dots from a Giants loss on Sunday to a firing squad in early January.

A defeat all but guarantees the Giants an 0-3 finish to the regular season (unless you really think there's a chance they're going to beat the Patriots, who most likely will be 15-0 after Sunday's game against Miami). And 0-3, followed by a first-round loss in the playoffs - if the Giants even make the playoffs at 9-7 - is exactly the "but- what-if" scenario that Giants ownership had feared. That's the reason they didn't offer Coughlin a contract extension when the team was 9-4 and needed just one win to clinch a third straight playoff berth, according to multiple team sources. As one said, "You just never know" what will happen in the last few games of the year. Continue

Tom Coughlin defends passing game

There was garbage swirling around Giants Stadium, the goal posts were swaying and balls were fluttering out of the quarterbacks' hands. Add in temperatures near freezing and it seemed like a perfect night for smashmouth football. So why did the Giants end up throwing the ball 52 times?

Tom Coughlin didn't even wait for the question Monday before he gave his answer, one day after the Giants went pass-crazy in a 22-10 loss to the Redskins. He defended the play-calling of offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, and insisted he had no problem with the aerial game plan. Continue

Tom Coughlin's job security a Giant blessing for players

The vultures that once circled outside the Giants' locker room aren't there anymore. And inside, the players are no longer asked if they think their coach is coming back. That's a relief to the players who, one year later, admit that last year's Coughlin Watch was a terrible distraction during the final month of the season. They're glad Tom Coughlin survived. They're glad he's likely to survive again. But they're even happier to know the vultures have disappeared.

"It's not as distracting as it was last year because we're not focusing on who can potentially be the next head coach or what our head coach is going through," said right tackle Kareem McKenzie. "Right now we're just focused on playing good football and winning games. (Coughlin's status) is no longer a distraction to us."  Continue

Tom Coughlin's painful truth: Play on

When Tom Coughlin praised Antonio Pierce for his gutty performance in Philadelphia on Sunday, it wasn't just a way to honor one of his captains. It also served as a message to Pierce's injured teammates: Get on the field.

It was a not-so-subtle public directive that Coughlin has been delivering privately for weeks. The Giants (9-4) are entering the stretch run, trying to fine-tune themselves for the playoffs. Injuries have decimated the Giants late in each of the last two seasons, and Coughlin doesn't want to go into the playoffs shorthanded again. Continue

Coughlin: Jacobs must get a grip

Immediately after the Giants sweated out a 16-13 victory over the Eagles in Philadelphia, Tom Coughlin did not come down hard on Brandon Jacobs, who twice lost fumbles that proved costly. The first handed the Eagles a gift field goal and the second, on the Eagles 5-yard line, cost the Giants points of their own.

Returning after missing two games with a strained hamstring, Jacobs was rusty with regard to ball security, Coughlin explained. Yesterday, though, Coughlin was not as forgiving. "We've got to continue to force the issue there in terms of where the ball is held and how it's held," Coughlin said. "You see how close these games are, how one play here or there can be the difference in a game. Certainly you don't want it to come from that. Continue

Tough decisions await Coughlin in season finale

You are the head coach of a team with nowhere to go heading into the regular-season finale. You are locked into your playoff spot, can't move up or down, and there's burgeoning speculation about how you might handle that game. You are not Bill Belichick. You are Tom Coughlin.

It is growing increasingly likely the Giants will have nothing tangible to play for the night of Dec. 29, when they face the Patriots at Giants Stadium. The Giants at 8-4 are in command for a wild-card position, a full two games ahead of the mediocre pack with four games remaining. A victory this Sunday in Philadelphia goes a long way in clinching the No. 5 seed in the NFC and a trip to either Tampa or Seattle in the first round of the playoffs. Continue

Tom Coughlin says no to no-huddle

Every time Eli Manning has some success in the no-huddle offense, as he did during the Giants' wild comeback in Chicago on Sunday, there are renewed cries for the Giants to use it more often. And every time, Tom Coughlin essentially says, "No."

However, maybe it's time for a little more of it - especially when Manning seems out of sync, as he did in the first three quarters on Sunday. Look what it did for Rex Grossman when the Bears opened in the no-huddle on Sunday. They scored on their first drive, he completed his first eight passes and he looked pretty good for most of the game. "We are reluctant to just go to that because of the flexibility, the utilization of personnel and the mix of run and play-action passes," Coughlin said. In other words, the no-huddle limits their options, and the Giants prefer to switch personnel frequently and vary their play-calling and approach. Continue

Even at 7-4, Tom Coughlin not wild about Giants' playoff chances

The Giants are 7-4 and have a two-game lead in the NFC wild-card chase, but after watching his team get buried by the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, Tom Coughlin wasn't talking about playoff possibilities. "That is the furthest thing from my mind," he said. "The one thing that is on my mind is the quality of our play. Nothing really is all that important right now other than that fact, because we need to play at a higher level."

That message - "one of real concern," Coughlin said - was what he delivered to the Giants yesterday morning, one day after their 41-17 loss. Most of his ire was directed at the offense, since he said the defense "played OK" and special teams did "some very positive things." But he wanted to make sure the Giants didn't get comfortable just because they've got a cushion in the chase for a playoff berth. Continue

Tom doesn't pull Manning, Burress

If ever there was a time for Eli Manning to be pulled from a game, it was in the fourth quarter of yesterday's moribund 41-17 trouncing at the hands of the Vikings.

Manning with 12:59 remaining already had thrown his fourth interception and, for the third time, saw one of his errant throws returned for a touchdown. At 41-10, certainly the outcome was no longer in doubt and, though there were no illusions of a comeback led by backup Anthony Wright, what was the point in Manning remaining on the field for further humiliation or risk of injury? Continue

Tom Coughlin securing his Giant future with looser attitude (and victories)

Tom Coughlin barely kept his job after last season and then received the minimum vote of confidence from Giants ownership with just a one-year contract extension that didn't come until after he convinced them of his plan for the future.

But he is now positioning himself for a multi-year deal. He has impressed co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch with his attempt to reinvent himself in his 12th year as an NFL head coach by easing up on his players, controlling his wild-man act on the sidelines, smiling once a week and giving players a say on team issues with his leadership council. He has also eliminated the locker-room chaos. Getting off to a 7-3 start helps his cause, too. Continue

Old Tom Coughlin returns from hiatus

There he was again, back from a four-month exile, the curmudgeon we love to hate. Tom Coughlin was Tom Coughlin again yesterday at last, bristling and grumping like we always knew he could. It only took one bad loss, 31-20, to the Cowboys at Giants Stadium. Coughlin was stripped bare of his victory Zen, his mask of serenity. That sure wasn't New Age Tom anymore along the sidelines. This Tom stared, befuddled and annoyed, at his inept players. The veins weren't bulging yet. That is Stage 2 stuff. But Touchy-Feely Tom was gone, replaced by Tantrum Tom behind the podium, barking at the media after the defeat.

"That's your verbiage again," he snapped when somebody asked him about a statement game. Then he stalked off, ending the press conference after a three-minute speech and two relatively innocuous questions. Continue

Tom Coughlin has turned image and Giants around

If there's anything a lifetime in football and 37 years in coaching have taught Tom Coughlin, it's that he is doing things the right way, and that the right way has worked. He has nearly 100 wins as an NFL head coach and six playoff appearances to prove it, no matter what the vultures in the media and some disgruntled players say.

He has never questioned those convictions, not during an apparent player revolt last season, not as the media gathered with pitchforks at his doorstep. Not during the three long days his bosses took to decide whether he should be brought back for 2007. Continue

Coughlin, Giants taking advantage of bye week

Antonio Pierce was rushing to his car on Tuesday afternoon, trying to get a flight out of town to begin his five-day, midseason vacation. "Never had one of these before," he said. "Almost don't know what to do with myself."

If the Giants needed any more indication of how different 2007 has gone compared to the last two seasons under Tom Coughlin, then this was it. A host of players scurrying to their cars to begin a long getaway; even Coughlin's coaches, who normally put in 16-to-20 hour days during the season, were given off from today until Sunday. It hasn't been a grind on the field, where the Giants have run roughshod over teams with a combined 11-33 record through their six-game win streak. Continue

For Tom Coughlin, Giants, preparation still like clockwork

Tom Coughlin did not give his players a curfew last night and they were free to explore the rich nightlife London has to offer. The only stipulation on their first night on the town was that they had to check in with team personnel when they arrived back at the hotel.

Coughlin probably didn't have to worry. The Giants landed at 5:15 London time yesterday morning after taking off from Newark at 6 New York time the night before. Who had the energy to stay out all night in Covent Garden, Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus, the hottest nightspots in London? Continue

Tom Coughlin says winless Miami Dolphins still a threat

The NFL is trying hard this week to sell American football to a European city that has repeatedly rejected the game in the past. Yet that's nothing compared to the sales job Tom Coughlin has to do.

He has to sell what no one in his right mind would buy - the idea that the hapless and winless Miami Dolphins are a dangerous foe. And he has to sell them as that even though they are without their best quarterback (Trent Green, IR, concussion), running back (Ronnie Brown, IR, knee) and receiver (Chris Chambers, traded) and their starting free safety (Renaldo Hill, knee), too. Continue

Coughlin turning into Mr. October

The new Mr. October on the New York sports scene is Tom Coughlin, who is 12-2 in that month in his four years with the Giants following a 33-15 victory over the 49ers. Fast starts are part of the scenery for Coughlin, as this is the fourth consecutive season the Giants are 5-2 after seven games. Recent history indicates the early winning ensures nothing.

In 2004, the Giants roster was decimated by injuries and they lost eight straight after the 5-2 start. In 2005, they were 6-2 at midseason and finished 11-5 and in first place in the NFC East before a rash of injuries hit. Last season, the Giants were 6-2 and promptly went on a four-game losing skid, once again done in by severe injuries. This can obviously serve as a warning for this year's Giants, rolling with a five-game winning streak as they head to London later this week to face the winless Dolphins Sunday at Wembley Stadium. Continue

Careful, Tom!

IT will not be Joe Montana quarterbacking the 49ers on Sunday against the Giants. It won't be Steve Young behind center at the Meadowlands. It might not even be Alex Smith, who could miss another game with an injured shoulder. Either Smith or Trent Dilfer - yes, the same Dilfer who led the Ravens over the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV - will be standing in the way of a five-game winning streak for Big Blue.

Therein lies the problem for Tom Coughlin's 4-2 Giants, who have sometimes stumbled when the going gets easy. “I don't believe in the theory of a trap game, but the 2-3 Niners are a team that can be potentially dangerous,'' said Daryl Johnston, who will be the color analyst for the game on Fox. “Their coach, Mike Nolan, does a good job, and his team will never stop playing.'' Continue

Michael Strahan's new book praises Tom Coughlin

The first time Michael Strahan met Tom Coughlin he hated him. In fact, he hated him so much, he vowed 2004 would be his last season with the Giants. Now, nearly four years later, Strahan couldn't imagine playing for anyone else.

That's a startling turn of events, and it's one of the subjects the future Hall of Famer addresses in his new book, "Inside the Helmet: My Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior," which he wrote with his long-time friend, Fox broadcaster Jay Glazer. And the praise is probably a nice change of pace for Coughlin, who was ripped in Tiki Barber's recent book and criticized in a book published about former Giants GM Ernie Accorsi. Continue

Bench coach

IT would have been interesting to examine the fallout left behind from Tom Coughlin's decision to bench rookie cornerback Aaron Ross for the first half of the Giants' 35-24 victory over the Jets if the dramatic second-half turnaround had not transpired.

Ross was punished because he violated team rules - likely arriving late to a meeting or to the team hotel Saturday night - then went wild after halftime with his first two career interceptions and his first touchdown return. Continue

Jim Fassel returns Tom Coughlin's rip

It took nearly four years, but Jim Fassel finally fired back at Tom Coughlin for insisting at his first press conference as the Giants' head coach that the injuries suffered under the Fassel regime were "a cancer" and "as much a mental thing as anything else." "I took offense to it and I know players had to take offense to it and medical staff had to take offense to it," Fassel, the Giants coach from 1997-2003, said on WFAN yesterday morning. "When you go in as a coach, you don't try to say something in the past about somebody. Because the whole thing that came out about me running a country club came from those opening comments. And that's offensive to me."

Coughlin's comments came during his introductory press conference on Jan. 7, 2004, during which he vowed to fix all the problems that had occurred in Fassel's last season with the Giants. The most infamous comment was about the 12 Giants who ended the 2003 season on injured reserve (three others sat out the last few games). "I'm aware of the injury factor, the number of IRs, which is a cancer, let's face it," Coughlin said. "It's something that has to be corrected. It's a mental thing, I believe, as much as anything else." Continue

Seriously, folks

The first utterance yesterday out of Tom Coughlin's mouth consisted of one word. "Serious," he stated, when asked about the mindset of the Giants.

Serious also would be an apt characterization of the Giants' condition as they lug their 0-2 record into Washington to face the 2-0 Redskins on Sunday. The health of the Giants certainly cannot be described as stable, but they are not yet critical, either. Still, sickly is no way to go through a season and that's all the Giants have to go by after allowing 80 points in two losses. Continue

Tom Coughlin's job may soon be in doubt with slow start

This year's Tom Coughlin Watch can officially start now that the Giants are off to their first 0-2 start in more than 10 years and the defense has given up the second-most points in the first two games of the season in their 83-year history. It's only mid-September, but the playoffs aren't looking so good.

This is not the way for Coughlin to go about saving his job. It's never good when two games into the season the coach is already saying everybody is "embarrassed."

He was handed a mandate by ownership when he was given a modest one-year extension in January to eliminate the chaos that ruined last season and get the Giants back into the playoffs. He has changed his ways, has lightened up, become more player-friendly and has yet to explode, which may be the most astounding development of the young season. Continue

Real Tom Coughlin not always so cheerful

All it will take tonight is Tom Coughlin chasing after Mathias Kiwanuka and getting in his face if he doesn't finish off a sack of Tony Romo, or Coughlin's veins popping out of his neck screaming at an official or a couple of condescending answers at his post-game news conference. Then we'll know the real Tom Coughlin is back after an imposter took over his mind and body this summer.

The Giants open against the Cowboys and the focus tonight and all season will be on Tiki Barber's favorite coach, who he claims all but picked him up in a limo and drove him right out of football and into the television studio. If the Giants have a bad season, Coughlin could be sitting next to Barber next year. He goes into the season with a slim margin for error. Continue

Coughlin's all ears

Tom Coughlin in his three previous seasons as Giants coach insisted the lines of communication between himself and his players were always open. Yet, somewhere along the way, the message too often failed to connect. "Tom said to us his door has been open for a long time," punter Jeff Feagles said, "and nobody walked through it, basically."

Sensing the problem, Coughlin for the first time in his coaching career has assembled a 10-player Leadership Council, designed to create greater harmony within the locker room and better dialogue between Coughlin and his team. Continue

A Giant change

The impatient man nearly pitched a perfect training camp. Was that really Tom Coughlin, spending a month ensconced at the University at Albany, deftly handling every question thrown his way, whether it concerned the ongoing Michael Strahan saga or what Tiki Barber said this time or - egads! - yet another investigation into Eli Manning's development?

The Giants coach this summer changed his demeanor in an attempt to reveal what he believes is his true colors. He knows he's direct and not tolerant of redundancy or anything he deems a waste of his valuable time. What Coughlin was surprised and hurt to learn following last season is that so many people in the media perceived him as uncaring, rude and even hostile when it came to the give-and-take that comes with the job. Continue

Coughlin is feeling blue after string of Giant injuries

Tom Coughlin sounded down. And he even admitted he was down. It wasn't the rainy weather or a case of the late training camp blues. It was the seven injuries the team suffered in Sunday's preseason win over the Ravens.

"From the head coach's standpoint, it's one of the most not only frustrating but depressing things you have to deal with," Coughlin said in a monotone voice on a conference call yesterday. "It is a part of the game, we all understand that, but you would like to play through these preseason games with some kind of a clean slate so that the football team you work with in the spring and bring along through camp, you have an opportunity to play the regular season with." There's no chance of that happening because receiver Michael Jennings is out for the season with a torn Achilles' tendon. His injury, which ended the season for a hardworking player who finally made an active roster last year at age 27, was the toughest for Coughlin. Continue

Giants' Coughlin showing his softer side

I have known about this side of Tom Coughlin for nearly 20 years. Funny. Engaging. Caring. Personable. Vulnerable. But it wasn't until a few minutes after Giants practice yesterday afternoon that he was willing to show it with a tape recorder running and a notebook in front of his face.

Finally, after all this time, Coughlin was willing to reveal himself: He admitted he needs to show his players he cares about them. That he feels immense pressure, but not for the reasons you might think. That he's deeply hurt by the perception he's a raving lunatic with no social skills. And that there is a compassionate, considerate person beneath the gruff exterior the fans see on game day. Continue

Osi hears it from Tom

The theme of Giants camp was supposed to be "Shut up and play," which is essentially the message Tom Coughlin delivered to Osi Umenyiora Monday night. Hours after ripping Simeon Rice and insisting he won't move from right defensive end if Rice is signed by the Giants, Umenyiora landed in Coughlin's doghouse and got a lecture from the coach. Neither party revealed details of their discussion, although GM Jerry Reese insisted, "I don't think that's a big deal at all.

"Players try to protect players," Reese said. "I don't think Osi meant that in any malicious way towards the New York Giants. Osi's being a good little brother trying to protect Michael Strahan, one of his mentors." Continue

Tom ducks no one

THERE is fire in Tom Coughlin’s eyes now and passion in his voice. “I’m not a lame duck,” Coughlin tells The Post in an exclusive interview. “All of my actions in the offseason, all of my energy, everything that I’ve put forth in terms of assembling this staff - I hired a new defensive coordinator, I promoted an offensive coordinator, I promoted a special-teams coordinator, I did some of the most difficult things that you do from inside an organization - it’s not something you take great joy in doing, but it’s something you have to do in this business.

“I do it for the long term, and I fully expect that I’m gonna be the head coach of the New York Giants for an extended period of time. We all know that regardless of what is said, we’re here to win. We’re one year at a time in this league, we all know that, but I fully expect for this to go much beyond that.” After last season, Coughlin was given a one-year extension through the 2008 season. Continue

Tamer Tom has Giant task

Tom Coughlin, the hard-driving, rules-obsessed, arm-waving, often out of control on the sidelines Giants coach, has presided over three of the most chaotic seasons in the team's 82-year history. It placed him right on the edge of getting fired in January, but he's not expected to be granted another reprieve if the chaos isn't replaced this season by at least one playoff victory. The moment he steps on the practice field Saturday in Albany, the Coughlin Watch starts up again.

So do a ton of questions. Will this be a wasted year for the Giants? Should new general manager Jerry Reese have been allowed to pick his own coach? Is Coughlin a lame duck and did the Giants just put a one-year delay on the inevitable by bringing him back this year, with perhaps an all-star cast of Bill Belichick, Bill Cowher, Bill Parcells and John Fox available after this season? Continue

Tom will hear gripes from players' committee

In an effort aimed at fostering a better flow of communication between players and head coach and nip any and all sniping in the bud, Tom Coughlin will assemble a Leadership Council that will come to him with grievances and/or suggestions not long after the Giants open training camp in Albany.

"It'll be comprised of different people in different stages, position-wise and number of years of service," Coughlin told The Post. "And hopefully that will be a means of communication between the players and myself." Coughlin would not divulge names, but Eli Manning, Michael Strahan, Shaun O'Hara and Antonio Pierce are certain to be members of the Leadership Council. "I think it could be anywhere from 8-to-12 [players]," Coughlin said. Continue

Call Coughlin cornered

Change. That was one of the prerequisites laid out to Tom Coughlin. Not his core beliefs about football. Not his hairstyle. Not his dedication to discipline or his abhorrence of tardiness or his old-school values. He had to change himself.

Giants ownership is not demanding a kinder and gentler Tom Coughlin, but it stipulates a more reasonable Tom Coughlin. The man in charge does not have to be revered, but the acrimony leveled at Coughlin down the stretch of last season did no one any good. The perception of Coughlin was as a beleaguered captain at the helm of a ship gone adrift, complete with the requisite mutinous crew. Coughlin enters his fourth season in New York with the gangplank waiting to be unfurled for that tortured walk into coaching banishment. Can he fend off what many believe is an inevitable conclusion? Continue

Sorry, but this just isn’t going to work

Tom Coughlin, undergoing churl therapy with the media, has decided to find patience only after any remaining for him has expired.

At the urging of the Giants hierarchy, the coach is saying hello when it’s almost time to say goodbye. Probability is, had his team not lost six of its last eight in 2006, Coughlin’s soul still would be unsearched. Or, if the Giants had notably improved themselves in the offseason, last year’s damage could still be controlled the only way things ultimately can be in the NFL, with a deep playoff run or the promise of one soon. Continue

Muck stops here

As he finishes up a vacation in Amelia Island, Fla., just days after celebrating the marriage of his daughter, Keli, Tom Coughlin already knows the main theme he's set to hammer home once the Giants hit Albany for the start of training camp.

Coughlin said he's never before in his coaching career encountered as poisonous and harmful a sensibility as the one that developed last season inside his locker room, with players unwilling to keep internal matters in-house. Coughlin is determined to eradicate that mentality. Continue

Coughlin: Shut up & play!

It is a message that Tom Coughlin tried to deliver late last season, but his players never really got it. So yesterday, in the relative calmness of a spring minicamp, he delivered it again. Enough with all the talking. Just shut up and play.

"I think basically we talk too much," Coughlin said after the first practice of the Giants' mandatory three-day minicamp. "We need to play the game and let our performance do the talking for us. We are in the media capital of the world, I understand that. But performance is the key. "We need to get back to playing the game and let our play do the talking." As Coughlin remembers all too well, the Giants did little of that last year as they endured a season of back-page headlines and soap opera-like drama. It led to a perception of chaos in the locker room during a meandering 8-8 season, and nearly helped push Coughlin right out of a job. Continue

No flak for Tom's 'Hitler' quote

Giants coach Tom Coughlin won't be disciplined and his job is not in jeopardy after he was quoted saying he is almost as hated as Adolf Hitler. The Giants had no official comment yesterday after the Daily News quoted Coughlin saying this, in response to a question about the battering he received in the New York and national media near the end of last season: "I hear some of it and I see it. You know [vice president of communications Pat] Hanlon tells me about it, what's going on. Hitler and then me, in that order. Unfortunate, but it is."

Coughlin made the comment to a handful of reporters in Phoenix at the NFL meetings. He and the rest of the Giants' front office, including team president John Mara, returned home Wednesday and there was no further discussion of the remark. Continue

Tom: My plight 2nd to Hitler's

Tom Coughlin barely hung onto his job after the Giants collapsed in the second half of last season. He tried to make it seem he was oblivious when there was so much speculation he was about to be fired. Clearly, it had an impact, because yesterday he compared the barrage of criticism to what Adolf Hitler received.

It was a regrettable and politically incorrect comparison, but just putting himself in the same sentence as Hitler shows the strain Coughlin was under and the degree he felt despised. When he was asked at the NFC coaches breakfast by a football Web site reporter whether he paid attention to what was being said about him last season, Coughlin replied: "I hear some of it and I see it. You know (VP of communications Pat) Hanlon tells me about it, what's going on." Then, he paused, and said, "Hitler and then me, in that order. Unfortunate, but it is." Continue

Tom tackles Barber's blitz

If Tom Coughlin drove Tiki Barber into retirement, he certainly drove him out in style. That was Coughlin's message yesterday morning when he fired back at his former running back for the first time since Barber accused the hard-driving coach of pushing him toward an early exit. Coughlin admitted he was "hurt" and disappointed by Barber's latest critical remarks.

Then Coughlin reminded everyone that his three-year tenure with the Giants coincided with the three best years of Barber's 10-year career. "That's what really disappoints me," Coughlin said between sessions at the NFL scouting combine. "And it hurts because I hold this player in high regard. And he has performed. The best years of his career have been under our tutelage and I'm certainly very proud of that." Continue

Coughlin: Don't blame me for Tiki's retirement

Tiki Barber said last week that Tom Coughlin helped push the Giants' all-time leading rusher into retirement and a new gig with NBC. Friday, Coughlin pushed back.

The Giants' embattled coach expressed disappointment with Barber's criticisms during a chat with reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, particularly with Barber's claim that Coughlin's grueling style was the deciding factor in the decision to retire."(That) bothered me," Coughlin said. "I was under the impression that he had a press conference to announce his new role at NBC and then to find out that he would turn around and talk about something like this -- I think to give the illusion that I had something to do with his retirement -- I don't quite follow it." Continue

Tired of Tom

On his first full day as a retired player, Tiki Barber lobbed a hypothetical hand grenade yesterday during a news conference to announce his hiring by NBC. Barber several times suggested Giants coach Tom Coughlin set the wheels of his retirement in motion because of the "physical grind" through which he put players. Which led to an obvious question for the reporters who gathered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza along with the network's top news and sports executives.

If someone other than Coughlin had been his coach the past three seasons, might he still be a Giant rather than a correspondent for the "Today" show and an analyst for "Football Night in America"? "Possibly, but that's speculation," he said. "I don't know. I'm 31 years old. I'll be 32 this year, which is way past the average for my position." Continue