New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin was on WFAN radio Monday with Mike Francesa. Coughlin and Francesa discussed the NFL Draft, the lockout, New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan and more. His response when Francesa asked him about Ryan's slap at the Giants was perfect Coughlin, and one of the reasons I have so much respect for him.
Below are a couple of highlights. You can read the full transcript at Sports Radio Interviews.
Did the lockout change your perspective on the draft? Instead of finishing the final pieces of your offseason now this was only the first step?
"Well it didn’t change perspective, but it left a very unusual feeling Mike because as you just stated usually when the draft is over you have a great feel for your team and you’ve had free agency and you’ve had an opportunity at the conclusion of the draft to fill in with college free agents and always one or two [college free agents] come out of that group that end up impressing you and making your team and within a couple of days you’re on the field. That is something as coaches we look forward to very much…but a very different feeling at the conclusion of the seventh round on Saturday because there was no opportunity to go ahead…and the ‘mad scramble’ as I always look at it to sign college free agents. None of that took place. All our plans, the plans of the rookie minicamp are all put on hold and that type of thing, so a very different, different feel to the conclusion of the draft.
I think that college free agents are going to get hit the worst with the lockout continuing. Do you?
"They really are. It’s going to be much different and depending on how the signals come in terms of the start of free agency it will be a mad scramble because you have free agency at the professional level and you have the college free agency and it’s always a circumstance in-and-around the end of the draft Mike when you look at the numbers at your different positions and you anticipate who you have to go after in the college free agency ranks and you like to find the highest quality ranked player to go ahead and target and put more emphasize on and quite frankly [have] more of a monetary value. The fact that that has come on and gone may still be the same at some point, but right now it’s not. It’s very, very confusing."
Do you have anything to comment on Jets head coach Rex Ryan? He said his team is playing better than the Giants in the last two years in his new book meaning they own New York City?
"Haha no I’m staying away from that. That wouldn’t be something I would comment on. I’ve been told what his new book [Rex Ryan's Book: Play Like You Mean It] has stated, but my comments would remain within myself. We’ve had a couple of guys speak out and I just firmly believe that [talk] is all well and dandy, but it’s going to be how you perform and how our teams play. It will certainly be settled on the field."