When he was hired by the Giants, coach Tom Coughlin described injuries as a cancer. And Coughlin doesn’t think NFL players should be deliberately trying to give other NFL players cancer.
“It’s very, very serious this whole business of the bounty system, and players being paid to try to inflict injury on others really has nothing to do with our game,” Coughlin tells Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on Basketball and Beyond with Coach K, a weekly, one-hour show on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio. “Even though we talk about it, you can go back to Coach Lombardi, with the idea that what’s really important is the ability of one-on-one, for one player to whip the other player. We all know that it is a very, very tough, very physical, very, very demanding game but to have the game at its highest level it’s this kind of great competitive effort and physical play that is the very top of the talent level of the game is what the game is all about.
“It’s not about trying to inflict purposeful injury on another player. It has no point in this game. It’s a physically demanding game no matter how you look at it. Injuries do appear, do occur, but to put it in that context of trying purposely to eliminate other great players. That’s what this game has been founded on, is the tremendous talent of the players that participate at this level and particularly, if you just wanted to isolate it, the quarterback position. Our game wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular if these fantastic athletes playing these positions weren’t able to perform at the highest level. We all talk about the physical nature of the game and toughness and the fact that you have to be the tougher team and you have to exemplify that with the way that you play. And we all know that it’s a gladiator sport and that’s part of the popularity of it but to take it to an extreme, like has been discussed here with this bounty system, has no place in the game.”
So, basically, if/when the Rams fire defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, he need not apply for work on Coughlin’s staff.
After all, Coughlin doesn’t want defensive players who inflict injuries. He wants defensive players who know when to fake having them. Allegedly.
Or defensive players who try to inflict new concussions on guys with a history of them. Not allegedly.
The show airs Wednesday nights at 7:00 p.m. ET on SiriusXM channel 86.