One year ago, New York Giants football coach Tom Coughlin was on the ropes. His team had underperformed, his star player, Tiki Barber, had quit -- partially because he didn't much like Coughlin -- and the New York media were pounding the coach into pudding every hour on the hour.
I mean, it was bad.
Watching from a distance, I felt sorry for Coughlin. I've seen public figures get hammered, but this was brutal.
Sportswriters were digging his grave and dancing on it at the same time. There weren't enough negative adjectives in the universe to describe the man.
Showing more bravery than most sports concerns, Giants management rejected public opinion and decided to give Coughlin one more year to turn things around. Once that was announced, even more vitriol descended on the coach.
