It was only five weeks ago that Tom Coughlin’s job seemed to be on the line.
His 7-7 Giants were set to face the Jets. Giants owner John Mara had made it clear after the 2009 season that he wouldn’t stand for another bad late season collapse, and the Giants were on the verge of one again this season.
Mara says that his faith in Coughlin never changed.
“Our belief never wavered. Tell you what, I’ve got a stack of letters on my desk [that say] ‘Fire Tom Coughlin’. I look forward to responding to them,” Mara told NFL.com’s Albert Breer. “I held on to them, waiting for the right time to respond. I think this might be the right time.”
(It was that kind of night for the Mara family. John’s mother Ann even made a classic cameo during the team’s post-game celebration, which was caught on FOX.)
A second Super Bowl trophy would change the way we think about Coughlin. But those around the man say he hasn’t changed as much as we are led to believe.
“I can’t say he’s changed,” veteran defensive end Osi Umenyiora told Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports. “But at the end of the day, what he’s doing, it’s working.”
“I don’t think he’s mellowed,” tackle David Diehl said.
Even Coughlin admits he hasn’t changed much: “Oh, I’m not sure about that. I haven’t done a whole lot of that.”
The Giants haven’t really changed that much of the years either, in large part because of the Mara and Tisch families. That stability has helped bring them back to the Super Bowl.