Ex-Giants praise Tom Coughlin over Jalen Ramsey criticism

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Tom Coughlin may have put the Jacksonville Jaguars on the map during his stint as the very first head coach, but things didn’t go so well when he returned as executive vice president of the football operations in 2017.

Yes, the Jaguars returned to the AFC Championship game for the first time since Coughlin last led them there in 1999, but it came at a price.

Dealing with a new generation of players, the old school Coughlin, militaristic style just didn’t work. The players wanted a gentler, nicer, friendlier and more forgiving manager and that’s not what they got. They had a man who wanted players to show up up to five minutes early and didn’t hesitate to fine them.

Jaguars players have complained in public and private. 25% of all grievances filed with the NFLPA between 2018 and 2019 were against Coughlin and the Jaguars, which led the union to take the unusual step of warning free agents not to sign with the team.

Soon after, Coughlin was fired.

But now, two years after Coughlin’s last appearance on the team, the former Jaguars are still complaining about the responsibility the two-time Super Bowl champion head coach forced them to take on.

“To be honest, we didn’t like Tom Coughlin. That’s what happened, “cornerback Jalen Ramsey said on the” Catchin Fades “podcast.” It was his first year there and we were a sorry team the year before. We are. From a relaxed coaching team that made us adults, but we were too young for that at the time, we were too young a team to know how to really handle it.

“When they brought in Coughlin, he went over to compete. It was like… even worse than college sometimes. We felt like half of the things he was trying to implement weren’t even about football. You must wear white socks. It doesn’t matter if I’m wearing white socks or black socks, the receiver is going to turn off anyway.

Ramsey and the other Jaguars players clearly didn’t understand what Coughlin was trying to do with his seemingly binding rules. It was also an issue Coughlin faced early in his tenure with the New York Giants. But eventually it clicked and Big Blue enjoyed huge success under Coughlin as a result.

Following Ramsey’s criticism, several of Coughlin’s former Giants players quickly came to his defense.

Tom is not for everyone but he is for those who want to lift this Lombardi Trophy. https://t.co/cq4hqQ8e3R

– (@ lt4kicks) July 16, 2021

Jalen mustn’t like to be held responsible, I’m glad he’s my coach.

– Rich Seubert (@ RichSeubert69) July 17, 2021

True Champion True Leader !!! Tom Coughlin is all we needed to be champions. We don’t win anything without him, we played for Tom. pic.twitter.com/HKxeihpU0f

– Brandon Jacobs (@ BrandonJacobs27) July 16, 2021

Retired running back Tiki Barber may agree with Ramsey’s criticisms of Coughlin, but you can bet few other of these teams feel the same. That includes Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan, who hated Coughlin at first but came to love him in the end.

“Coughlin, we hated him. And it was real. He was not a public figure. We hate this man, “Strahan told FOX Sports in 2017.” But now he’s learned that you can be tough, everyone is going to have the same goal – to win – but you have to let it go. [people] know that you are human. You must know that I care about you. And once he learned to let us know he cared about us, we loved him.

“I don’t think there was a player who played for him after that who didn’t appreciate what he went through [to change], who learned nothing from him.

Coughlin is tough when it comes to football and it’s just not for everyone. Some just want to take the path of least resistance while receiving their pats on the back in the process. He’s not Coughlin and that’s why it clearly didn’t work for Ramsey and the Jaguars.

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