35 Facts About Tom Coughlin

1.

Thomas Richard Coughlin is an American former football coach and executive.

2.

Tom Coughlin was the head coach for the New York Giants from 2004 to 2015.

3.

Tom Coughlin led the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, both times against the New England Patriots.

4.

Tom Coughlin was the inaugural head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, serving from 1995 to 2002 and leading the team to two AFC Championship Games.

5.

Tom Coughlin was born in Waterloo, New York in 1946, and played football and basketball in high school.

6.

Tom Coughlin once played a high school basketball game against Jim Boeheim, who played for Lyons High School at the time.

7.

Tom Coughlin idolized Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis and wished to play at Syracuse.

8.

Tom Coughlin attended Syracuse University when he was offered a scholarship by assistant coach Jim Shreve and became a three-year letter-winner on the football team under Hall of Fame coach Ben Schwartzwalder.

9.

Tom Coughlin played halfback for the Syracuse Orange football team.

10.

Tom Coughlin was teammates with future Hall of Famers Larry Csonka and Floyd Little.

11.

Tom Coughlin stayed at Syracuse after graduation and obtained his master's degree while working as a graduate assistant.

12.

Tom Coughlin was mentored by Bill Parcells while Tom Coughlin was on Parcells' Giants staff as wide receivers coach.

13.

Tom Coughlin was known for moving the clocks at team facilities anywhere from five to 15 minutes ahead in order to ensure players arrived ahead of time for team meetings.

14.

Tom Coughlin's first coaching job was as a graduate assistant for his alma mater Syracuse in 1969.

15.

Tom Coughlin then moved on to his first head coaching job at Rochester Institute of Technology from 1970 to 1973.

16.

Tom Coughlin had near-complete authority over football matters, effectively making him the team's general manager as well.

17.

In eight seasons at Jacksonville, Tom Coughlin helmed the most successful expansion team in league history.

18.

Tom Coughlin was named NFL Coach of the Year by United Press International.

19.

Tom Coughlin's Jaguars won 49 regular season games in his first five years as head coach, a remarkable average for an expansion team of nearly ten wins per year.

20.

Behind Warner, Tom Coughlin led the Giants to five wins in their first seven games.

21.

However, with the team having lost their next two, Tom Coughlin decided that Warner, who had been struggling, could no longer do the job and began starting the highly touted Manning beginning in the tenth game.

22.

In just over two years as the Giants head coach, Tom Coughlin transformed the Giants from an underachieving, last place team into a possible Super Bowl contender.

23.

On January 10,2007, it was announced that Tom Coughlin would receive a one-year extension on his current contract through the 2008 season, but since the Giants' team policy is to never have a coach in the final year of his contract, this only guaranteed that Tom Coughlin would remain as the Giants' head coach in 2007.

24.

Tom Coughlin cited numerous complaints about Eli Manning's leadership skills and Coughlin's practice style as decisions to retire at what seemed the peak of his career.

25.

The loss jeopardized the Giants' playoff bid and Tom Coughlin's future was uncertain.

26.

On February 21,2014, Tom Coughlin told reporters at the 2014 NFL Combine that he agreed on a one-year extension to his contract.

27.

On January 4,2016, Tom Coughlin announced his resignation as head coach for the Giants.

28.

Tom Coughlin later revealed that the Giants had forced him to resign.

29.

On December 18,2019, Tom Coughlin was fired by Jaguars owner Shahid Khan.

30.

The NFLPA took the unusual step of publicly warning free agents against signing with the Jaguars because of Tom Coughlin's reported disregard for player rights.

31.

In 2012, Tom Coughlin was awarded the third highest honor within the Department of the Army Civilian Awards, the Outstanding Civilian Service Award, for substantial contributions to the US Army community while serving as the New York Giants head coach.

32.

In July 2016, Tom Coughlin was hired to be a senior advisor to the NFL's football operations department, and on November 14,2016, during half time of the game between the Giants and the Cincinnati Bengals at MetLife Stadium, Tom Coughlin was inducted into the Giants' "Ring of Honor".

33.

In January 2017, it was revealed that Tom Coughlin had been re-hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars to be the team's executive vice president for football operations.

34.

In July 2017, Tom Coughlin was awarded the Arents Award, which is Syracuse University's highest alumni honor.

35.

On July 30,2020, Tom Coughlin broke four ribs, punctured a lung, and needed stitches on his head, after a getting into a biking accident with a fellow biker.