Real Football - What Should Have Been a Goodbye to Tom Coughlin

Hey Tom, is it cold out or
 did someone jut poor acid on your face?

We love Tom Coughlin.  We really do. How could we not love a coach who lead your favorite team, after it barely qualified for the playoffs, on a magical Super Bowl run that included a defeat of the hated Cowboys, an NFC Championship win at the -600 degree Lambaeu Field (in a game where we legitimately feared his face might actually fall off) against the Dongslinger and one of the biggest upsets of all time against the undefeated New England Patriots?  That's as good a run as any football fan could ever asked for.  Add in the irrational love associated that comes with the Super Bowl victory being the last game we ever watched with our Dad and you can understand the kind of fan loyalty we have for Coach Coughlin. 

So it's with an overly dramatic heavy heart, we say that the Giants made a mistake by not firing him.  It's not because the Giants - a team with a Top 10 defense AND offense that lead the league in takeaways and sat 8 minutes from a division title and a potential first round bye - missed the playoffs because they couldn't stop giving the ball to the other team.  And it’s not even because we think he’s a bad coach.  In fact, we don't think there are 5coaches we'd rather have.  (If you’re wondering we’d only rather have, in no particular order, Belichick, Fisher and Payton definitely and arguably guys like Reid, Tomlin, Ryan, Shanahan and Smith.)  So, if he's a Top 10 coach and not to blame for this year's collapse, why should be be fired?
Professional sports is not the place to look for figures sympathetic to those of us to dwell helplessly in the real world.  In it's simplest terms, it's a group of people, getting paid enormous sums of money to be involved in games that we love.  Still, if there’s one group that deserves our sympathy (except for say, members of the Jets massage therapy department) it’s the coaches.  Coaches are like bread, you can do lots of things to keep them fresh but eventually they get moldy and end up on the trash heap.  Unless you are an all-time 1st tier level coach (and sometimes even if you are) not matter how good you are at your job and how much you win, at some point you're time is just up.  Players stop hearing what you have to say, your message falls on deaf ears and, when that happens you're screwed.  When we talk about the message not being heard we’re talking about one thing – the players stop listening. Yeah, “professional” athletes who get paid tons of money just decide they’re done listening to their boss.  Basically, you lose the players (the individuals who you are supposed to view you as a authority figure), you lose your job.  As unfair as it may seem, it's the business.  Any rational owner, when faced with the decision to get rid of a coach making $3m or a roster of players making upwards of $125 million, has no choice.  Coaches might a relative-to-reality ridiculous amount of money but remain completely underpaid when it comes to the real powers.  So feel a little bad for coaches and feel bad for Tom Coughlin because no matter how good a coach he is, that's what happened to him. 

When you look back at a season where week after week the team committed the same mistakes, namely turnovers, and week after week Coughlin stood up at his press conference and vowed to make changes only to see the same thing happen again.  Sure, the players were the ones at fault, fumbling the ball, failing to make catches and throwing interceptions but it's the coach's sole responsibility to put his players in positions (on the field or on the bench) so that the same things don't happen repeatedly.  Without that, he's useless.  Combine those mistakes with the Giants propensity to fade down the stretch (perhaps a result of Coughlin's tendency to work the team so hard during training camp leads to them peaking at the wrong time) and you come to the inescapable conclusion that a coach only 3 years removed from a Super Bowl victory and who had only one below .500 team in seven season has lost his team and it's time to go.

By not recognizing this reality, the Giants are also foregoing a golden opportunity to salvage any remaining championship potential the core of this team has.  By bringing him back, the Giants apparently believe that, despite any supporting proof, that the team will contend next season.  But, if they really do think the roster is good enough (there's no indication that they will or even should cut ties with veterans and start a rebuilding process under the oldest coach in the league), they're taking a huge risk entrusting one of the final years of its peak to a Coach who the evidence suggests has lost the room.  If they predictably fall short, the team will have to the find a new coach and either try to squeeze out a contender from a potentially aging roster or rebuild completely.  That scary scenario becomes even more frightening when you consider the fact that the team is sitting out an offseason where an abundance of proven coaches are available.  No matter how you feel about them you can’t argue that Cowher (who allegedly listed New York as one of his preferred destinations), Gruden, Billick and potentially Fisher and Fox are all viable coaches who could step into a contending team and potentially be the difference. (We happen to like Cowher and Fisher above the rest by a substantial margin)  They might not be better but they are different and that's what matters most.  It's hard for us to imagine passing up the opportunity to replace one Top 10 coach another.  At the very least, the new coach would get a year of learning and adjusting the personnel to make a run before Osi and the offensive line are rendered ineffective in 2 years. 

Too bad.

A quick note on Jim Harbaugh:  If he ever wants to be an NFL coach - and that's an IF - now is the time.  His stock will never ever be higher.  Chances are, if he loses Luck to the draft, his and Stanford's BCS appearances will go on hiatus.  Even if he went to Michigan, the time it would take to turn the program around - including having to recruit all new players for the change from RichRod's spread to his power system (ironically a change back from the one RichRod had to make) - would certainly dim his star a little.  Bottom line, the NFL doesn't hire mediocre college coaches.  But what about his dream of being the head coach of his alma mater? You can always go back to college.  Nothing he can do in the pros will hurt his stock, colleges hire failed NFL coaches all the time and unless Michigan hires the next Bo Schembechler, they'll still want him in 3 years if the NFL thing isn't to his liking.