Coughlin Sees the Light

Coughlin Sees the Light

All the whispering had built to a crescendo. Opinions were being voiced as if they were testimonials. When it came to philosophizing on the state of the Giants, attitude seemed so decidedly overwhelming one man's view could easily resonate as the voice of all of sports' nation.

And Tom Coughlin surely had to hear all the rumbling. How could he not when so very much of it was

tempered for his ears only? His time had long past him by, so the theme went. His military-like approach to running a team was as stagnated as the Giants offense had too often became under his direction. And now his inability to connect with his players was starting to sabotage any chance the G-Men had of fulfilling all the promise trumpeted for the much heralded Manning Era.

To say Tom Coughlin shared a view all of his own, one far different from that of the masses, would be akin to saying the coach has been known to raise his voice a time or two along the sidelines. Just the same, all the rhetoric somehow affected him, moved him to take a longer look in the mirror. And its from that staredown that a new man emerged.

It's a man, his players will tell you, that in no way is cut in the image of the one many of them had all but come to despise just six short months earlier. It's a man that treats them as men, and thus, in some ways, has garnered the unconditional child-like blessings of each and every last one of them.

“He's still got his rules, but he's more personable,” says linebacker Antonio Pierce. “Now guys can actually go up and ask the coach a question and talk to him and feel comfortable. If you don't feel like you can trust your coach, you're not going to have a relationship.”

That same realization came to Tom Coughlin. Along with the understanding that if is he is to have any chance at survival, if his days as leader of the Giants are to extend anywhere beyond this season, he needed to reconnect with his players. Make them feel like a team again.

Certainly that wasn't always a given last year when the team's bitter 8-8 finish was highlighted by widespread infighting. Be it coach against player, player vs. player or me against the world dustups, the Giant's waged war on all fronts last season.

And much of it, or at least the perception of it, began with Tom Coughlin and his my-way-or the-highway state of being. That simply wasn't going to fly any longer. His players voiced it and now Tom Coughlin has put it all in motion.

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