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New York Giants' co-owner John Mara has said repeatedly that he and head coach Tom Coughlin will sit down and discuss an extension for the veteran coach. Both sides seem to want that to happen, but those talks still have not taken place.
"We haven't had any discussions, we've just had too many other things to worry about at this point in time," Mara said. "At some point I'll talk about it with his agent, but we really haven't discussed it yet."
With Mara busy hosting Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium they don't figure to take place this week, either. Best guess here is that an extension for Coughlin gets done sometime after the Super Bowl ends and free agency begins in March.
Mara Still Wishes Giants Were Playing In Super Bowl
Mara understands how special it is to be hosting the first outdoor cold-weather Super Bowl. He just wishes the Giants were playing in it.
"I think my father would be pretty amazed if we pulled it off," Mara said. "He was for it right after 9/11 when (former commissioner) Paul Tagliabue started talking about it and I think he got excited about it then. For whatever reason the momentum died.
"But I know he would be pleased. I’m not sure my grandfather or uncle could have ever envisioned it." ...
"How many chances do you get to host a Super Bowl?" Mara said. "Certainly we were hoping to play in the game. The odds are stacked against you to do that. And that dream ended fairly quickly for us."
New QB Coach: Helping Eli Will Be 'Fun'
Danny Langsdorf, new quarterbacks coach for the Giants, already has some thoughts on helping quarterback Eli Manning return to peak form.
"Just fundamentally," he said. "I've watched a few games and I saw some of the turnovers that they went through last year and there’s probably some things fundamentally that I can help with.
"But you’re talking about a guy that won a lot of games. It’ll be fun, it’ll be a good experience to work with a guy that has played at a high level. He needs to bounce back a little bit this year."
Langsdorf said he was encouraged when Manning admitted as much to his new quarterbacks coach.
"He even stated that to me, that he’s looking forward to getting going and improving his technique from last year and implementing a new system," he said. "That’s going to be something that’s important for him. He’s been in one system for a long time with what they’ve done and this will be new for him. There will be a learning curve for him too."
Giants Begin New Offensive Journey
This is something I penned for Yahoo Sports. Here is a small part of it:
Coughlin will be 68 next season, easily the league's oldest coach. No matter how much energy he has and how much longer he wants to stay on the sideline he is far closer to the end of his coaching career than to the beginning. You would hardly expect him, at this stage, to blow up his offense and try something completely new, completely foreign to him. Yet, that is what Coughlin is doing.
With the Giants' offense "broken" -- co-owner John Mara's word -- and quarterback Eli Manning coming off the worst season of his career (a career-high 27 interceptions, a full-season career-low 18 touchdown passes) Coughlin is starting over.
Odds 'n Ends
Could other cold-weather cities host a Super Bowl? Possibly. The Giants' Mara does not think Green Bay is one of them, however. Jonathan Tisch, another of the Giants' co-owners, would like to see the Super Bowl come back to New York/New Jersey.
Here is a quick rundown of Super Bowl events this week.
I suppose any excuse to run a Kate Upton video is a good excuse. Here, Upton does her Victor Cruz impersonation in one of the MetLife Stadium end zones.
