Why Tom Coughlin doesn't plan to stop coaching any time soon
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Tom Coughlin asked for the number to be repeated, and it was immediately clear that he hadn’t spent even a nanosecond considering this. Which, knowing his mantra of living in the now, is no surprise.
So the fact that Coughlin will coach his 300th game this season, something only 12 men in NFL history have done, didn’t interest him. The name that he’ll pass on the all-time list this year, however, got his attention.
Coughlin has coached 288 games. Bill Parcells coached 303. Coughlin will catch and pass his mentor during this, his 19th season in charge, and that’s a testament to his health and passion for football.
"When you say it that way?" Coughlin told The Star-Ledger this week. "I have such great respect for Bill Parcells and what he’s been able to accomplish in this game, the amount of time and years he’s spent and the number of places he’s coached and done an exceptional job with the teams he has coached.
"To coach that number of games, obviously it means you’ve been around a while. I look at it that way. I’m blessed to be in the position I’m in. I’m grateful to ownership. I’m grateful to the coaches and players I’ve worked with. I’m appreciative of the fact that I’m still doing it, to be honest with you."
He made this clear: He intends to keep doing it.
Coughlin turns 68 at the end of the month, and he might be facing a season that could determine his future after going 7-9 in 2013, but he left no doubt he wants to keep coaching as long as he feels that competitive drive.
And it doesn’t take more than a few minutes around him — the way he still charges across the practice field to correct a mistake — to know that drive is still there, even after the two Super Bowls, even after a half century in football.
"Absolutely. Absolutely," he said when asked if he still feels like he has something to prove. "I approach it that way because I do have a lot to prove. It’s the only way to go. I think when that competitiveness is not there, it’s time for people to do something else. It’s still there for me.
"This is what I’ve always done. The calendar and the clock are all set by football season and the offseason, the approach for me competitively has nothing to do with age or anything else. I just know I’ve got to find a way to make our football team the best that it can be. That’s the way I approach it."
We’ll have plenty of time to judge Coughlin on the team — and the early returns from the preseason are not promising — but before that madness begins, Giants fans should take a minute just to marvel at Coughlin’s drive.
Coaching an NFL team has the uncanny ability to make young men seem old. So why does it make one old man seem young? What is it about this job, arguably the most high-pressure position in professional sports, that gives Coughlin the energy to run laps around men half his age?
Coughlin isn’t one to spend much time reflecting, especially not in the middle of training camp. But asked that question this week, he credited his exercise, his diet and most of all, his regimen.
"I think it’s because the attitude that I have, the regimen that I believe in, and quite frankly, this is what I do," he said.
"I don’t have a lot of other things in my life. I’ve been blessed with a beautiful wife (Judy). I’ve got a great family. I’ve got six grandkids in New Jersey and I’ve got five in Florida. But coaching — that’s what I do."
He has done it longer than all but a handful of men in football history. The list includes some of the game’s legends, men like George Halas (whose record of 497 games coaches will never be broken), Don Shula (490), Tom Landry (418) and Curly Lambeau (380).
And Bill Parcells. Coughlin invited his friend and mentor to the Giants training facility this spring, and after Parcells toured the building and addressed the players, the man who won the first two Super Bowl trophies for the franchise posed for a photo with the man who won the next two.
Parcells is only four years older than Coughlin, but he already has been retired eight years. There was a time, after a trying third season with the Giants, that Coughlin’s family said they would support him if he decided to leave coaching. Coughlin, of course, made major changes in his approach and stayed put.
Seven years and two Super Bowl championships later, he is still on the job, and like Parcells someday, he’ll have a spot in the Hall of Fame. So many things have changed for the Giants this season, from the assistant coaches to the players, but the man in charge remains a constant.
"I’m always saying: I will continue this as long as I can, and when I say something to Judy, she’s all for it," he said. "If I ever slip and say something that I should be spending more time at home or with her, she looks at me cross-eyed and says, ‘Don’t worry about me!’ "
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/08/why_tom_coughlin_doesnt_plan_to_stop_coaching_any_time_soon_politi.html....That picture is priceless
This post was edited by xnozx. on Aug 14 2014 01:45pm