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Tom Coughlin a steadying influence for Giants

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February 03, 2012|By Julian Benbow

Tom Coughlin is bidding for his second Super Bowl win in five seasons. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff )

INDIANAPOLIS - One lasting lesson Tom Coughlin learned from Bill Parcells was the importance of continuity.

Parcells had his guys - on the field and in the booths. Phil Simms was his quarterback, Lawrence Taylor was his muscle.

Coughlin, Al Groh, and Bill Belichick were his pupils.

Whether they lost (the Giants went 3-12-1 in Parcells’s first season) or whether they won (the Giants hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice under Parcells), they kept their key pieces together, knowing that was a large part of what led to the success and made the failures easier to overcome.

“There were very few peaks and valleys,’’ Coughlin said. “There was a feeling of pressure; the finger was always on the coaching staff and how they prepared their team and how the players responded to that. Ultimately, anyone who was around Parcells for any length of time learned how to win. That’s the biggest thing I took away from it.’’

Coughlin has been coach of the Giants the last eight seasons. When he came to New York in 2004, he started putting the building blocks together.

He jumped through hoops to help come up with a deal with the Chargers to land Eli Manning in 2004, and Manning has been the franchise’s cornerstone ever since. He also drafted his son-in-law, Chris Snee, who has been one of the anchors on the offensive line the past eight years. He built the defense around Michael Strahan, who played all 15 years of his career in the same uniform. He and general manager Jerry Reese have been working partners since 2007, rewarded at the end of that season when they played David to New England’s Goliath in a Super Bowl XLII upset.

The blueprint is simple: Get the right pieces, keep them together.

But coaching in a city where he’s perpetually on the hot seat, Coughlin has managed to maintain some stability in the most unstable of surroundings.

Some say his personality has changed, he’s less of a hard-liner, more relaxed, more prone to crack a smile, less likely to crack the whip.

He was 57 when he took the Giants job, and he had been out of football for three years after being fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

He’s 65 now, with a Super Bowl ring and two grandchildren.

If his demeanor has changed, he said his approach hasn’t.

“I don’t think I’m that different,’’ he said. “The principles, the values, what we believe are important, those things are all the same. The virtues are all practiced the same way. I think maybe I’m a little more patient.’’

When his surroundings lack sanity, he has no choice but to stay sane. This season was a prime example.