New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin on the hot seat? What's new, newsworthy, or even noteworthy about that? Why, in fact, is it even being written about?
Well, our good friends at the mothership have gone and listed Coughlin as one of six NFL coaches on the hot seat entering the 2015 season. That's why.
What is yours truly's reaction to that bit of conjecture from my dot-com brethren? Well, how about a big big shrug? A so what? A big old, congrats Captain Obvious?
Coughlin has seemingly been on the hot seat for, well, just about since the day he took the Giants job. At least at a variety of times since 2006, when Tiki Barber started complaining and Jeremy Shockey started mouthing off about the Giants being out-coached.
Two Super Bowl titles offered Coughlin some shelter from those who wanted him removed from the Giants sideline. Those two titles, and the class with which he carries himself and represents the franchise, have also bought him some good will and almost certainly lengthened his leash as the Giants have floundered the past few seasons.
I have said before and will say again that the mess the Giants have been the past two seasons was not of Coughlin's making. He didn't draft the players. He didn't sign the free agents. He didn't negotiate the contracts. He didn't do anything that caused players to get injured.
Regardless of all of that it's not news that anyone would put the venerable Giants coach on the proverbial 'hot seat' entering the 2015 season.
Everyone, including Coughlin, knows the score. The leash on the good will generated from those Super Bowl titles has just about run out. It's winning time. As co-owner John Mara's acknowledged at the end of the 2014 season it's "win or else" time.
That means the 2015 season is a 'get to the playoffs or go in a different direction' season for the Giants. Coughlin will be 69 this season. He probably would like to coach the Giants for another decade. He has been one of the two greatest coaches in franchise history along with Bill Parcells. He might one day be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. All good things, however, come to an end.
That's not news. Nor is it news that Coughlin's time is almost certainly near an end. After three straight seasons of missing the playoffs, and two straigh with losing records, everybody knows the score entering the 2015 season.
Call that a 'hot seat' for Coughlin if you want. In truth, it's just the reality of the NFL.