After 12 years, 170 wins and 2 Super Bowl wins with the New York Giants, coach Tom Coughlin stepped down. On Tuesday he held a press conference bidding farewell in true Coughlin fashion.
He comforted a very emotional Eli Manning, assuring him that it was not his fault that he had to step down.
“He can handle it all. He’s done it before and can handle it again. He’s extremely bright, he’s extremely competitive. He’s what you want a son to be made of. He thinks he’s the reason (I’m out). He’s not the reason. Eli, it’s not you. It’s us. We win and lose together. When we lose, I lose. When we win, you guys win. That’s the way it is. I know what it is. What I would tell him, he’s going to be back in here in two days starting to work on next year, just like he always does. That’s never going to change. God bless him for it.”
Coughlin also left the door open that he will coach again, answering “not necessarily” when he asked if he extinguished his coaching flame. When asked if he will remain in football he jokingly replied, “I will, somehow, some way. My wife will not want me to be home longer than 48 hours. ‘Don’t you have some place to be?’”
Coughlin then breezed by Giants president, CEO, and co-owner John Mara.
Festering bad blood after Coughlin resigned before Mara and Steve Tisch could fire him a day earlier? “Not even a little bit,’’ said Pat Hanlon, the Giants’ senior vice president of communications. “It was a guy who was oblivious, who had one thing on his mind … get the hell out of there.’’ Afterward, Mara went into the office of the head coach and hugged Coughlin and his wife, Judy. Here’s the full presser:
WATCH IN FULL: Tom Coughlin’s farewell press conference #Giants #GiantsPride #ThanksTC https://t.co/aL9y8cDWH6 — New York Giants (@Giants) January 5, 2016
