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Tom Coughlin

February 7, 2012 by · Comments Off on Tom Coughlin 

Tom Coughlin, Following his team’s Super Bowl XLVI win over the Patriots Sunday night, Giants coach Tom Coughlin had no trouble getting to sleep.

Well, for about 15 minutes anyway.  It was hard even for the 65-year-old Coughlin to come down from the hysteria of the Giants’ gripping 21-17 victory.

“It was a great football game, as it always is,” Coughlin said yesterday morning. “We’re excited. We’re excited right now.”

The Super Bowl championship was No. 4 for the Giants franchise and No. 2 for Coughlin, who became the 13th coach to win multiple Super Bowls. He is also the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl. Dick Vermeil was 63 when he guided the Rams to victory in XXXIV.

“Tom Coughlin is one hell of a football coach,” Giants running back Brandon Jacobs said. “I would rather go to war with Coach Coughlin than anybody in the National Football League. He has done great for us.”

Sunday’s game was a chance for Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady to cement themselves among the select few to win four Super Bowls (Chuck Noll is the only coach, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw the only quarterbacks). Instead, the legacy of Coughlin — and Giants quarterback Eli Manning — grew.

“I don’t really think about that stuff, to be honest with you,” Coughlin said. “It’s not about me and this is what we talk about all the time. We’re certainly very cognizant of some of the superior individuals that we have on our team, thank goodness, but it is the team that provides us with our strength, and our ability to perform under pressure, whether it is good or bad, and that’s the way we think.”

Coughlin, in his eighth year with the Giants, signed a contract extension last summer, but when the team suffered through a four-game losing streak and went 1-5 over a six-week stretch from November to December, his job security came into question.

The Giants were 7-7 through 14 games. Following Coughlin’s “finish” mantra, they won six straight elimination games to end the year.

“Coach Coughlin deserves all the credit in the world for getting us back on track,” defensive end Justin Tuck said.

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