Tom Coughlin is coach of the reigning Super Bowl champion New York Giants, and he’s the first to tell you he honed many of his skills coaching RIT in the early 1970s.
Coughlin spent the 1971-73 seasons with the Tigers, compiling a 16-15-2 record
“You’d be surprised,” the Waterloo native said Wednesday before receiving the Major Don Holleder Award at the 59th annual Rochester Press-Radio Club Day of Champions Dinner. “We went from club to varsity, and I was the only full-time coach. I did everything: I booked Motel 6’s, booked buses, made schedules … When I went to Jacksonville (as the first coach of the NFL jerseys Jaguars), I was hired to literally start a franchise.
“I was the seventh employee and I hired everyone in football operations. It was easier, because I had been through it at RIT.”
When the Giants played the unbeaten New England Patriots in the Super Bowl last February, more than 70 former RIT players gathered at the Radisson Inn to watch their former mentor guide his team to an upset win.
“That meant a lot,” Coughlin said, “because those guys played for the pure love of the game.”
Upset? What upset? Coughlin understood his Giants were taking on a team one win away from being ranked among the greatest of all time, but he was undeterred.
“We were consistently told we couldn’t win, but we felt good about ourselves,” he said. “We refused to be beaten. We won our playoff games by 20 total points.”
Other than being married and having children, Coughlin says winning a Super Bowl is the greatest feeling in the world.
“And second is having your family there,” he said. “They’re the world champions, too.”
Goose vs. Joba, Part 2: Goose Gossage thinks Joba Chamberlain should be a reliever for the New York Yankees, not a starter. The young pitcher made his first start for New York on Tuesday night.
“I don’t agree with it, but I’m not in position (to change it),” said Gossage, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame next month. “The Yankees’ Achilles’ heel last year was their bullpen before Mariano Rivera. Joba is a lot more valuable in the bullpen than starting.”
Gossage, who received the Rochester Coca-Cola Sports Personality of the Year Award, didn’t back off previous criticism of Chamberlain’s penchant for pumping his fist to celebrate strikeouts.
“I would never have been able to come into the dugout and face my manager and teammates if I did that,” he said. “It’s Little League. I never showed up a player in my career.”
An ‘overwhelming’ experience: Gossage was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the ninth year he was eligible. Wednesday, he used the word “overwhelming” three times to describe his emotions.
“You’ll probably hear me say it a lot more,” he said. “I went numb when I heard. It was like someone hit me over the head with a brick.”
Gossage said it’s up to the Hall of Fame voting committee to decide if stars from the steroids era should be inducted, but added that if certain facts are uncovered “I don’t think the home-run record (held by Barry Bonds) should stand.”
Reliving a dream: Bucky Dent says a day doesn’t go by that someone doesn’t mention his famous home run in the 1978 American League playoff, which powered the Yankees over Boston.
“I have people come up and say ‘I was 9 years old and skipped school, or stayed home from college,’” the former shortstop said. “People love to talk about it.”
Dent was at Yankee Stadium for Tuesday night’s game ¡ª he also thinks Chamberlain should stay in the bullpen ¡ª and says he is “sad, sad, sad’ about the imminent end of Yankee Stadium. “The House That Ruth Built” will be replaced by a new stadium next season.
“My dream as a kid was to be a Yankee and play there,” he said. “And I did. I know I played where the greats played.”
Edwards sees improvement: Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards says he learned a lot from starting in 2007 and is optimistic the Bills can end their playoff drought this year.
He’s also happy to have his rival for the starter’s job, J.P. Losman, still on the team.
“He knows the guys better than I do, and it will create a lot of confidence in those guys that we’re not going to drop off if I go down,” Edwards said.
“A year ago in spring drills, I’d go into a huddle and not even know a guy’s name. Now I know their kids’ names, and we’re golfing together.”
No place like home: New Jersey Devils forward Brian Gionta lives in Greece in the offseason and says “it feels like a three-month vacation” from the grind of the NHL season.
Gionta believes parity is alive and well in the NHL.
“Look at Pittsburgh,” he said. “They were down and out a couple of years ago. Now they’re playing in the finals.”
From:http://www.jerseys-shopping.com
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