Linebacker Antonio Pierce, who played the last five seasons for the New York Giants but is currently mulling retirement, says his old coach Tom Coughlin will be coaching for his job in 2010.
“He’s on the hot seat,” Pierce said on NFL Network, per ESPN.com. “I think everybody in the organization is on the hot seat. You are talking about a team three years removed from the Super Bowl. There are some fires lit underneath people’s butts now in that locker room and in that organization. Everybody is on high alert. It is going to be a very interesting 2010 season.”
Pierce mentioned the feud between defensive end Osi Umenyiora and former defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, which started with a blowup during an August meeting, as an example of a problem that plagued Coughlin’s team throughout the 2009 season.
“That, I think, trickled down to the rest of our season,” Pierce said. “That’s still on everybody’s mind because everybody remembered that. Osi walking out of the team meeting. And he left the building. He came back and apologized and we moved on. We went 5-0 after that but it had an effect.”
Pierce, whose 2009 season was cut short by a herniated disc in his neck, said he’s leaning toward retiring instead of having surgery.
“It is healing but I am going to need surgery to continue playing,” Pierce said. “That’s not an option I am looking forward to.”