Tag: Tom Coughlin

Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation will hold dynamic, interactive Champions for Children Gala on October 2

The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation will hold their annual Champions for Children Gala on Friday, October 2 at 6:30 p.m. ET.

On Friday, October 2 beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET, the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation will hold its annual Champions for Children Gala and it promises to be an event like no other.

Because of COVID-19, the 2020 Gala will be held virtually, opening the door for more New York Giants fans and supporters of the Jay Fund Foundation to participate and interact than in previous years.

Attendees will be placed at virtual tables where they can interact privately with others at their table while also viewing the inspiring event and participating in silent auctions. Special guests will also pop by to say hello and communicate throughout the night.

For those who have purchased a seat, the silent auction will be a highlight for memorabilia collectors and supporters of the Jay Fund Foundation, which has seen a 52% increase in requests for emergency financial assistance given the vulnerability of families dealing with the pandemic.

“Everyone can be a champion in the lives of our vulnerable New York and New Jersey families tackling pediatric cancer. This year more than ever, our local families facing the unthinkable need the help of our loyal Giants fans to help the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation raise money to keep the roof over their heads, food on the table, the lights on, and so much more when they are putting all of their resources toward helping their child get better. No dollar amount is too small and on behalf of all our Jay Fund families, I humbly thank you,” Tom Coughlin told Giants Wire.

Among the memorabilia items up for bid are a Giants jersey signed by Saquon Barkley, a custom cleat signed by Victor Cruz, a Super Bowl XLII helmet signed by Tom Coughlin, a jersey signed by Harry Carson, a Super Bowl XLVI football signed by Eli Manning and so much more.

Speaking of Manning, he will also be an honoree at the event.

“We started it when I was in New York and we wanted to, again, spread our wings and help families who have a child with cancer,” Coughlin told MSG 150 in May.

“Eli Manning has agreed to be an honoree. Jimmy Dunne III from the financial world has agreed to be an honoree. Lesa France Kennedy from NASCAR is another honoree. It’s a knock the ball out of the park group of honorees.”

Sponsorships remain open and every dollar will go towards helping a family in need. Tackling childhood cancer is something we can all get behind.

For any questions or requests for additional information, you can contact the Champions for Children Gala HQ at (212) 627-1000 or jayfund@resevt.com.

We at Giants Wire will be there and we hope to see you there, too!

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For Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning challenges ex-Giants to raise money for Jay Fund Foundation

New York Giants legend Eli Manning challenged his former teammates to raise money for the Jay Fund Foundation.

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, who won three Super Bowls with the team over two stints and 15 years, turns 74 years old on Monday.

Unsurprisingly, one of the first of Coughlin’s former players to step up and send out his well wishes is retired quarterback Eli Manning.

And in doing so, also challenged former Giants to step up and donate to the Jay Fund Foundation.

Manning and Coughlin developed a close bond during their time together, which spanned from Eli’s rookie season of 2004 through Coughln’s resignation in January of 2016.

Even after Coughlin’s forced resignation, the two have remained close and share a mutual respect and admiration for one another.

Following Manning’s retirement from football earlier this year, Coughlin penned an emotional “thank you” to the quarterback.

“Eli, I want to thank you for all that you have done for the Giants, for the NFL, and for the community. You and I came to the Giants together, and it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you and to be your coach. Thank you for all the great memories,” Coughlin said in a statement via The Jay Fund Foundation through Giants Wire. “I can’t wait to see what the next chapter holds for you and Abby and the children. You are certainly deserving of all the accolades that come your way.

“In the locker room, you were always an incredible combination of a quiet leader and fierce competitor; you represented the Giants in all matters with the utmost integrity and your leadership and skill as a quarterback were key to two Super Bowl victories and being named MVP twice. But it’s the person you are that will be missed the most by your teammates and the entire Giants organization.

“Archie and Olivia should be so proud of the son they raised. Your words and actions epitomize who you are as a player, a teammate, a dad, and a human being. Thank you for all the joy you’ve given to everyone you’ve touched as a New York Giant.”

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Tom Coughlin fractures ribs, punctures lung in bicycle accident

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin recently landed in the hospital after suffering multiple injuries in a bicycle accident.

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, who won two Super Bowl titles during his most recent stint in East Rutherford, suffered four fractured ribs, a punctured lung and required several stitches in his head following a bicycle accident last weekend.

Coughlin confirmed the accident to ESPN, telling the outlet that another man on a racing bike “comes out of nowhere and clips the front of my bike.”

The tough as nails 73-year-old first went home before his family convinced him a trip to the hospital was necessary. It was a very on-brand move for Coughlin.

After undergoing some X-rays and a CT scan, doctors in the Baptist Health emergency room informed Coughlin he faced a four- to six-week recovery.

Coughlin most recently served as the executive VP of football operations for the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is where his head coaching career began back in 1995. However, Coughlin was fired by owner Shad Khan last December after the NFLPA warned players to think twice about signing with the team due to excessive fines and player grievances.

Although that disciplinarian style did not work in Jacksonville, it did work in New York, where Coughlin won a total of three titles — the first of which came as a wide receivers coach in 1990.

Coughlin was inducted into the Giants’ “Ring of Honor” in 2016.

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Report: Former Jags executive Tom Coughlin sustains rib, lung injuries in bicycle accident

Former Jags executive Tom Coughlin is currently recovering from a bicycle accident which resulted in rib and other injuries.

Former Jaguars executive Tom Coughlin received a bit of a scare this week after being involved in a bicycle accident in Jacksonville. Per ESPN, he fractured four of his ribs, slightly punctured his lung and had a small head injury that required stitches afterward.

Per Coughlin, another man on a racing bike blindsided him and came out of nowhere, clipping the front of his bicycle. Coughlin also stated that he thought he was aware of his surroundings, however, he missed the other person and the accident occurred as a result.

Coughlin initially went home before going to the emergency room of Baptist Health. It was there where he had X-rays, a CT Scan, and was told he would be under a four-to-six-week recovery window.

Alongside the rest of Jags Nation, we’d like to wish him a speedy recovery and send prayers as Coughlin makes his run back to full health.

Tiki Barber: Tom Coughlin wasn’t the only reason I retired

On Sunday, former New York Giants RB Tiki Barber explained his decision to retire early and admitted Tom Coughlin wasn’t the sole reason.

When New York Giants running back Tiki Barber announced that he would retire following the 2006 regular season, it came as a surprise to many. After all, Barber had appeared to reach his prime and was dominating the league, rushing for over 1,800 yards in 2005 and over 1,600 yards in 2006.

But behind-the-scenes, a war was brewing between Barber and then-head coach Tom Coughlin, who was still in his overbearing disciplinarian phase.

At the time, even future Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan was pondering retirement due to Coughlin military-like style.

Strahan returned, but Barber did not. And the running back wasn’t shy about placing the blame for his early retirement on Coughlin, while also taking shots at young quarterback Eli Manning.

In the years since then, Barber has publicly apologized to Manning and buried the hatchet with the Giants. And on Sunday, he also revealed that Coughlin wasn’t the only reason he decided to walk away from the game of football.

“I mean, Tom was such a small part of it,” Barber said during an appearance on the Scoop B Radio Podcast. “He was so hard on everybody and you felt unappreciated at times, but it was so much more than that. Maybe he was the last little straw that made me walk away from the game, but physically I was getting beat up, man.

“It would take me until Thursday to feel good again. I was getting massages on Monday and acupuncture. I would get this ART treatment and then another massage on Thursday, and then now I’m feeling all right on Friday. [Then we’d have] like a walkthrough practice and then you get beat up again and it starts over. And it was just getting hard.”

Still, the combination of Coughlin’s overbearing nature and the physical toll being taken on Barber’s body weren’t the be all, end all when it came to retiring. Rather, a third factor weighed in.

“These experiences that were happening to me were just capturing my attention. [Like] going to Israel on the request of the late Shimon Peres and visiting the Knesset. It was a surreal world that I was living in,” Barber said. “I was working at FOX News at the time and I met Tony Snow, who was the House Press Secretary. [He] introduced me to Condoleezza Rice and I had lunch with Condi Rice when she was Secretary of State Department.

“All these things are just becoming more interesting to me than grinding. Being in the circle, developing relationships that were going to be so much more beneficial to me once I retired than being a football player. Now I love being an NFL athlete. I loved doing it in New York and having success in New York because it granted me access to a rarified circle like these billionaires and hedge fund managers and the society in New York.

“I mean, I had no business belonging but because I was a good football player, I had access to it and I was able to develop and create a lot of relationships. And so, it’s come to the point that I want to explore this. I mean, football’s great, but I want to explore this. And it became more important and that’s why I walked away.”

In 2011, five years after he initially retired, Barber filed paperwork to come out of retirement, but the second wave of his football career never materialized.

Currently, Barber is a radio host for CBS Sports Radio with Brandon Tierney — “Tiki & Tierney” — which is nationally broadcast every weekday afternoon from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET.

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Eli Manning will be honoree at 2020 Champions for Children Gala

Retired New York Giants QB Eli Manning will be among the honorees at the 2020 Champions for Children Gala in October.

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin appeared on The MSG 150 on Saturday night and reflected on his time in East Rutherford, Super Bowl XLII and retired quarterback Eli Manning.

Coughlin, of course, also discussed the Jay Fund Foundation and the upcoming Champions for Children Gala, which is tentatively scheduled for October 2.

It will be the 15th annual Champions for Children Gala and Coughlin announced that Manning, who was recently named the best No. 1 overall pick of the 21st century, would be among the honorees.

“We’re excited about it. It’s our 15th Champions for Children. We started it when I was in New York and we wanted to, again, spread our wings and help families who have a child with cancer,” Coughlin said.

“Eli Manning has agreed to be an honoree. Jimmy Dunne III from the financial world has agreed to be an honoree. Lesa France Kennedy from NASCAR is another honoree. It’s a knock the ball out of the park group of honorees.”

Coughlin also expects Giants co-owner John Mara and Steve Tisch to be involved.

“We’ve been supported wholeheartedly all of these years by the New York Giants. The Mara and Tisch families have been fantastic and I am sure they will be involved again,” Coughlin said.

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Former Giants coach Tom Coughlin reflects on Super Bowl XLII

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin reflects on Super Bowl XLII, the Week 15 matchup with the Patriots and media predictions.

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin appeared as a guest on the “MSG 150 at Home” on Friday night at 5:00 p.m. (and again at 7:30 p.m.).

Coughlin shared some of his favorite memories with hosts Bill Pidto and Alan Hahn from the team’s spectacular Super Bowl run in 2008, when they won four postseason games on the road including Super Bowl XLII against the undefeated New England Patriots.

The Super Bowl win was one the biggest upsets in the history of the NFL and the Giants knocked off Bill Belichick, Tom Brady & Co. with a smothering pass rush and little divine intervention from the football gods on offense.

“Super Bowl 42 has been on a couple of times,” said Coughlin. “I just wanted to make sure David Tyree made that catch. So I went back and looked at it again. It was a lot of fun watching that, it really was. It brought back fabulous memories.”

Leading up to the game, few gave the Giants a shot at winning and Coughlin takes pride in the fact that he and his team made them all look foolish as the Giants won, 17-14.

“One of the things I loved the most about Super Bowl 42 and that run was that when you look back, FOX had the game and their experts were all on. And from the first playoff game on, nobody picked us to win,” remembered Coughlin. “Not one game. Not in Tampa. No way in Dallas, they had beaten us twice. No way that the Giants were going to beat Dallas. And they certainly can’t beat Favre in Green Bay. There’s no way. They are going up there and it’s -27 (degrees). How can they win? And they can’t beat the Patriots. There’s no way. I remember Jimmy Johnson picked the score, 34-14 or something like that. And every one of them was wrong every time.”

Most coaches rest their starters late in the season but Coughlin did not want to interrupt the flow of his team heading into the playoffs. They faced the 15-0 Patriots at home in Week 17 and he felt he needed to play his starters and try to stop the Patriots from going undefeated.

The Giants almost did. They ended up losing, 38-35, but they showed they could play with anyone. The meeting would come in handy five weeks later when the two clubs met in the Super Bowl.

“I remember I got chastised for playing my starters against New England in Week 17,” said Coughlin. “My whole point was that we are the New York Giants and there’s no way history is going to look back at this and say that the Giants didn’t put their best foot forward against a team that was vying for an undefeated season.”

They did put their best foot forward, running the table with an improbable storybook ending.

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Jaguars declining Leonard Fournette’s fifth-year option

Add the Jags to the list of teams who will be declining the fifth-year option for their 2017 first-round draft pick, Leonard Fournette.

The Jacksonville Jaguars will not be picking up the fifth-year option of running back Leonard Fournette, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The Jags’ choice comes as no surprise as their relationship with Fournette has been up and down since drafting him in the first-round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Just last month, Schefter revealed that the Jags entered the draft open to trading him, however, nothing materialized though the Tampa Bay Bucs and Miami Dolphins contacted them.

Before 2020, Fournette had issues with seeing eye-to-eye with former team executive Tom Coughlin and the front office. His issues with the organization resulted in him being sidelined and fined at different points of his career. He also dealt with a suspension from the league for brawling with Buffalo Bills pass-rusher Shaq Lawson.

With the Jags declining the contract option, Fournette is due to make $4.17 million in 2020 and will count $8.64 million against the team’s salary cap. It appears those paychecks will fall on the Jags this year though, as his chances of landing with another team via trade feel unlikely with the draft over.

The Jags could end up still extending Fournette if he turns things around, however, a change of scenery may be what’s best for him. He’ll enter 2020 with 2,631 career rushing yards, 1,009 career receiving yards and 19 total touchdowns.

See it: Tom Coughlin’s speech prior to Super Bowl XLII

For the first time ever, the full video of Tom Coughlin’s speech to the New York Giants prior to Super Bowl XLII has been released.

On Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET, FOX will re-air Super Bowl XLII between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. It will be a split-screen experience with live analysis from the players who took part in the game, as well as other unique features and first looks.

One of those “first looks” came courtesy of the Giants themselves, who released video and audio from Tom Coughlin’s speech to the team on the eve of the biggest upset in NFL history.

You may have heard about the speech before, but for the first time, you can witness it through the eyes of his players.

Check it out:

Coughlin’s speech about the 1990 Super Bowl team and how they overcame the distractions of a major war was enough to propel his Giants forward. In the end, they were able to share that winning experience with him, just as Coughlin hoped they would.

Now… Who is ready to go run through a wall?

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See it: Boy inspired by Mark Herzlich rings cancer-free bell

A young boy inspired by former Giants LB Mark Herzlich and with the help of The Jay Fund Foundation, rang the cancer-free bell this week.

Back in early January, former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin penned an open letter to the organization and Giants fans across the country for their continued support of The Jay Fund Foundation, which is celebrating 25 years.

In that letter, which was originally shared here on Giants Wire, Coughlin specifically mentioned former Giants linebacker Mark Herzlich and the profound impact he had on many cancer-stricken children, including a young boy named Joey, who was just seven years old when he met Coughlin and Herzlich.

That portion of Coughlin’s letter can be found below:

“And then there’s Mark Herzlich who found a fan and friend in a little boy named Joey. Joey was a scared seven-year-old when I first met him and his mom in December 2016. Who wouldn’t be scared if they had just been told they had cancer? Lucky for me, Joey liked football and the Giants. I made a call to Herzlich and asked him if he would visit with Joey in the hospital. Mark didn’t hesitate, and within minutes of meeting Joey, Mark had a new friend, and Joey had an inspiration,” Coughlin wrote. “In fact, Joey was so inspired by Mark that as Joey began to lose his hair because of the cancer treatments, Joey fashioned what was left into a mohawk to look like Herzlich.”

On Tuesday, more than three years removed from the start of his battle, Joey claimed victory over cancer, ringing the cancer-free bell loudly for all to hear with an ear-to-ear smile on his face.

Who is out there cutting those onions?!

Congratulations to Joey, an absolute warrior, for beating the heck out of cancer, and to The Jay Fund Foundation for all the work they do, making special moments like this possible. It really doesn’t get any better.

If you would like to donate to The Jay Fund Foundation, there are multiple ways to join their team and several annual events that help benefit their cause. Be sure to check out their website or social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) for more information on how you can help.

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