While other franchises were quick to make changes, or are still pondering them, one of the league’s most disappointing teams this season has taken a different approach — patience.
Not only is he not getting rid of coach Tom Coughlin or General Manager Jerry Reese, but Giants owner John Mara is preaching the long view to fans who watched a team stumble to an 0-6 start and set franchise records for offensive futility.
“You’d like to think that after a certain period of time you’ve earned a little bit of credit that we’re going to do whatever we have to do to build this team back to where we think it can be,” Mara said, via Dave Hutchinson of the Newark Star Ledger. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to make the moves that they want us to make, but nobody wants to win more than Tom Coughlin or Jerry Reese except maybe myself.
“This is a lifelong thing with me and we’re going to do what we have to do, but we’re going to do it in an intelligent fashion. We’re not going to make these sweeping changes. Stability is important. It’s one of the reasons we’ve had some success here, but there are times when changes have to be made.
“If we agree on those changes, then we’ll make them going forward, but we’ll do whatever we have to do to improve this team and put a team on the field next year that our fans can be proud of. “
Of course, they were 7-9, and have missed the playoffs four of the last five years. But there were those two Super Bowl trophies, and that has earned the people who helped win them the rare opportunity for continuity.
Considering how close they were to the playoffs even with that 0-6 start made it that much more difficult for Mara to bear.
“It kills me that you go into these other stadiums and you see these large collections of Giants fans that are there and that’s their one time to see us all year or maybe in several years and they come out there and they’re supporting us and we put on performances like we did in Kansas City, in Carolina and San Diego,” Mara said. “It’s painful to watch that and we had some performances at home that weren’t very good either, especially when you look at our division.
“There was no reason why we couldn’t have won the division this year if we just come out of the gate something other than 0-6. Just make a couple of plays in those games.”
That’s giving Coughlin and Reese a chance to fix it, but it’s clear there are multiple issues that need to be fixed, or the shine from those Lombardi Trophies is going to dim.