Keidel: A Jaguars-Coughlin Reunion Makes Perfect Sense
By Jason Keidel
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Perhaps Pat Riley said it most recently or famously. But there is truth in the assertion that no matter how highly regarded or revered a head coach may be, his voice will someday find deaf ears.
And that, as much as any X or O, is the reason Tom Coughlin's time expired in New York. It wasn't his energy, age or wage. His brand of coaching simply didn't work on the same players anymore, even in a league as transient as the NFL. And while it only takes about three years for the meat-hook realities of football to befall a football player, not even the best coaches are immune to the vocational guillotine.
Even at the end of a wildly successful career that sadly wilted into several sub-.500 seasons, no one doubted Coughlin's commitment or love for football. His divorce from Big Blue was hardly mutual. He got dumped.
So even at 71 -- his age at the start of the next NFL season -- Coughlin should be a candidate for the expected litany of head coaching vacancies. But he's only uniquely qualified for one, well south of Gotham. And with "Back to the Future" much the rage recently, it's only fitting that the old coach return to his original NFL head coaching roots.
According to a piece in The Washington Post, which asserts that Coughlin is the only man right for the Jacksonville Jaguars job, he still has a home in town. It also doubles as a headquarters for his charity and, as recently as November, Coughlin mentioned that he still misses the gig.
Which confirms something we New Yorkers have known for a dozen years -- Coughlin is literally a football lifer. The only way he's going to leave the gridiron is feet-first. He's George Halas. He's Tom Landry. He knows nothing but absurdly early mornings and classrooms and life lessons. And 60 minutes every Sunday. Unlike his iconic predecessor, Bill Parcells, who finally retired in relative peace, Coughlin is clearly restless without an X and O to scratch in the snow or a whistle clamped in his mouth.
MORE: Five Facts About Tom Coughlin
It took Boomer & Carton to pry Coughlin from the Giants facilities. As recently as August, he was seen sweating on some treadmill in the bowels of MetLife Stadium -- until the media eventually shamed him from his old office, to finally yield the headset and the throne to Ben McAdoo (who's doing a decent job as Big Blue's boss).
And it took a while for the most ardent Coughlin apologists (like Mike Francesa and yours truly) to finally concede it was time for him to retire or be retired from the Meadowlands. But that does not mean he has to hang up the headset for good. Few coaches wear those hideous training camp shorts better than he does, even as someone 20 years deep into his AARP membership.
By all reports and accounts, Gus Bradley is a good man and good coach. But after a 2015 season that seemed to unearth a roster fertile with young stars, with burgeoning quarterback Blake Bortles flanked by all-world skill players like Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns and Denard Robinson, 2016 melted below mediocrity, reinforcing the notion that Jacksonville is gridiron quicksand, that no matter how hard you try to build a football foundation, it will inevitably sink into the Atlantic.
If you listened to the Jaguars' post-Bradley presser, general manager David Caldwell hinted at the team's lack of discipline or direction, about needing someone equal parts sage and sergeant. They essentially read Coughlin's resume. And in a sport known for espionage, for hiding injuries and masking weakness, the Jags were refreshingly candid, all but using the presser as a love letter to their former coach.
Provided both parties are honest, the Coughlin courtship should last about 72 hours. Jacksonville, like any NFL team with a head coaching vacancy, must adhere to the Rooney Rule and interview minority candidates. Perhaps the Jaguars will be blown away by someone half Coughlin's age, as the Steelers once were by Mike Tomlin. But unless that happens, it's impossible to think of anyone who wants to revive the Jaguars more than the throaty, red-faced coach who works on military time, if not with military precision.
Jacksonville made it clear they aren't looking for neophytes. Not only will bagging Coughlin save them the trouble of endless formality, sleepwalking through candidates they have no interest in hiring, they will save a bundle in moving costs while Coughlin moves the Jaguars back to the future.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
