Tom Coughlin, (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Tom Coughlin was hospitalized after a biking accident.
73-year-old Tom Coughlin, one of the league’s greatest coaches of all time and a hero in both North Florida and North Jersey, isn’t currently feeling himself after scary biking accident landed him in the hospital.
Adam Schefter is reporting that the former Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants head coach is recovering at home after a fellow biker clipped the side of his bike, giving the Super Bowl-winning coach rib and lung injuries. Doctors told Coughlin he faces a four-to-six week recovery.
Tom Coughlin is a legend in both New York and Jacksonville.
After a successful stint as the head coach at Boston College, Coughlin was named the head coach of the expansion Jaguars. Behind quarterback Mark Brunell and a pair of dominant wideouts in Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell, Jacksonville made the playoffs four times in their first five seasons, winning the old AFC Central twice.
After a year off from the game, Coughlin was named New York Giants head coach in 2004. While his domineering style earned him the nickname “Colonel Coughlin”, he built the Giants into a dominant unit on both sides of the ball.
With Eli Manning leading the offense and the likes of Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck solidifying the defense, Coughlin twice led one of the NFL’s gold star franchises to Super Bowl victories over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
While Coughlin did help the Jaguars return to the AFC Championship game in 2017 as an executive, he was fired after an overwhelming backlog of grievances filed against him and the team for frivolous fines came to light.
While his tenure as an executive in Jacksonville ended on a sour note, Coughlin’s reputation as one of the best coaches of the last 30 years is still intact. Here’s hoping Coughlin has a speedy recovery.