Town & State Sports

What to make of Tom Coughlin and the Giants

2011-12-02T15:38:00.001-05:00

It might happen again.

The Giants might collapse in the 2nd half of the season.

And yes, Tom Coughlin is on the sideline...again...

The Giants have squandered a two game lead in the (used to be) fantastic NFC East. Squandered a two game lead that nobody thought they would have. Eli has truly been elite, Victor is "Cruz"ing for yards after the catch, and the defensive line is as good as any in football. Why then, are the Giants looking down the barrel of another collapse at the end of a season? Is it Tom Coughlin? I think not...

I want to say that the Giants season began with a lot of optimism, but it most certainly did not. Much was made of a lockout-shortened offseason with big names entering free agency. The Eagles made moves, the Redskins made moves, even the Cowboys sured up some soft spots. The Giants, however, did nothing. Nothing to improve a linebacking core that had seen much better days, and nothing to improve an offensive line that used to be the pride of the Big Blue franchise. Optimism was not in the cards. Giant fans were envious of the Philadelphia front office. Not for the moves they made, but for the aggression with which they made the moves, showing a passion for having a winning team around their beloved coach Andy Reid.

The season began just as many thought it might, with a loss in Washington on an emotional September 11th. It made sense. The Giants did nothing to get better, weren't any good to begin with, and showed no will or toughness in Washington. It just made sense.

What didn't make sense, is what came next. 3 straight wins, two of which were on the road. Yes, the Rams are god awful, so we should have won that. Yes, the Eagles (then the "dream team") are now in the arm pits of the league. And yes, the Cardinals have seen better days. Now, it is easy to look at those wins and think the Giants should have won those games, but I don't know if they should have.

The Giants were over achieving, yes, OVER achieving, a word not often associated with the G-Men (with the exception of the Super Bowl run). They were playing better than anyone thought they could, and they were doing it consistently...and they were doing it while they were healthy. The Giants were headed in the right direction, even with a fluke loss in Seattle (a notoriously tough place to play, eh Vince Young?). There was reason to believe that the Giants could not only win the division, but run away with it. That is, before the injury bug came to town.

Now, I get it, the Giants were playing well, but can anyone honestly say they expected the Giants to keep winning when the names on the injury list include Nicks, Manningham, Bradshaw, Amukamara, and Boley? If you did, you're an idiot.

Eli is truly playing top notch football, but are Victor Cruz and Ramses Barden good enough to carry a team to a division title? Has Brandon Jacobs shown the "fall forward for 4 yards and keep the feet moving" mentality we saw for so many years? Is Mark Herzlich supposed anchor a defense after sitting in the green-room and going undrafted? Is Tom Coughlin supposed to take the blame for having no talent past the first string guys? And finally, with all this said, do you think adding the toughest schedule in the NFL to all of this makes it easier to win games? NO, NO, NO, NO and...NO.

Let's face it, the Giants were never supposed to be as good as they were in the first half of the season. They were supposed to get swept by the Eagles in the season series, they were supposed to get exposed by Tom Brady in New England, and they were supposed to have a quarterback who turned the ball over 30 times...again. Now, with all the injuries, all the rookies, and no offensive line, the Giants are supposed to win at Green Bay, win 3 more divisonal games, and win the battle for Met Life stadium against the Jets? I don't think so.

The Giants did what they could, Coughlin did what he could, and Eli is still trying to live the dream with his brother (somewhat) out of the headlines. The Giants got our hopes up, but lets not crucify Coughlin or the team for doing so. They tried, they tried really hard. It's tough living up to the the "Giants" ora, and it is even tougher to do so when you over achieve and play better than you are.

The Giants may now feel compelled to make the moves so many hoped they would last year. Jerry Reese almost got away with this one. He almost looked like a genius, almost. In the end, he looks like everyone thought he would; like a General Manager that forgot to do his job; like a man who didn't do enough; and perhaps like a man who doesn't want Tom Coughlin to succeed. He surely hasn't convinced us otherwise.

Will the Giants go to Green Bay and win? Maybe. Will the Giants make the playoffs? Maybe. Will the Giants win the Super Bowl? Maybe. It is a beautiful thing that we cannot answer these questions, but if the answers turn out to be no, the Giants will have some questions to ask themselves.

For a while, Giants fans didn't need excuses. For a while, Giants fans didn't need to defend themselves. For a while, the Giants were winning. Now though, we need the excuses, we need to defend ourselves, and we desperately need to win. Above all, when defending our team, defend our coach, Tom Coughlin. He has done a lot with this roster, a lot more than anyone (including management) expected him to do. Let's chalk this one up to injuries and a horrific schedule, and please, let's keep Tom Coughlin...besides, he does have Eli playing like Joe Montana.

Are We Bullying Tim Tebow?

2011-12-01T12:24:00.001-05:00

Bullying has become one of the most contentious and relevant topics in the United States today. Making headlines due to the rampant spread of bullying in schools, are we (the media), bullies ourselves? Sure, suicide and poor self-esteem are reasons enough to stop bullying between teenagers and college students, but who is setting this example? Is it human nature to bully? Or is it a learned behavior from the various media outlets and social pressures in our country? This topic is bigger than sports, but if we are to praise people for being themselves, why the hell are we so cynical of Tim Tebow for NOT giving into peer pressure, and NOT being afraid to be himself...no matter what.

Love him or hate him, Tim Tebow has been one of the most fun players to watch at the college and professional levels in recent history. More fun than Adrian Peterson, more fun than Mark Ingram, and WAY more fun than Andrew Luck. Why, then, has he become to most polarizing figure in sports?

One word, individuality.

Tim Tebow is an individual. He praises him team and the man upstairs more than himself, but make no qualms about it, Tim Tebow is an individual. This individuality is exactly what we promote to our children, yet we criticize an NFL quarterback for having morals that are TOO strong.

Maybe Tim Tebow is wrong. Maybe he should have given in to the pressures of being the big-man on campus at the University of Florida. Maybe he should have gone crazy, taken advantage of his status, and perhaps taken advantage of some college girls while he was at it. That's what professional athletes are supposed to do, right? Wrong. Maybe he should have taken his money and bought an Escalade on 27 inch rims, and driven straight to the night club. Maybe Tim Tebow should have listened to people that told him to drop the whole "God" thing because it made him less "manly" and more "vulnerable." That's what professional athletes are supposed to do, right? Wrong.

It is Tim Tebow's resistance toward common approval that makes him who he is, and makes him one of the greatest role models that sports has ever seen. I'm not saying, by any stretch, that just because he praises God that he deserves our respect. I'm not saying just because he stuck with his views of abstinence until marriage that he deserves our respect. What I am saying though, is that he deserves a chance.

People don't like Michael Vick because he killed dogs, and people despise Ben Roethlisberger because he has been accused of sexual assault (twice). And finally, people hate Tim Tebow because...ummm....uhhhh....he built a hospital in the Phillipines, gives his teammates all the credit, and brings a religious view of success to national TV? Things just don't add up.

As he recently said in a nutritional supplement commercial, nobody believed in him. From middle school, to top recruit, to national champion, to heisman winner, to first round pick, to NFL starter, to NFL winner (phew), nobody believed in him. Is it because he wasn't good enough, or is it because we didn't want to see someone that seemed so "perfect," to actually be perfect?

Now, lets take this and relate it back to bullying in our schools. We tell outcasts in our schools to stay true to who they are. We tell gay high school students that "it will get better." We tell EVERYONE that being yourself and not giving in is what makes a person so strong.

Then why do we consider Tim Tebow such a weak person? He is doing exactly what any parent would tell their child to do. Be yourself. The greatest part about it is that he is in one of the hardest positions to stay true to one's self! Women draped all over your belt loop in college, a heisman trophy, a national championship, and a first-round NFL contract. Those are reasons to change. Those are reasons to give in to the "typical athlete" ideal. Those are reasons that Tim Tebow should just drop his whole image and blend in. But those are the reasons that he DID NOT.

He showed everyone that being yourself is easy, especially if you don't have a press conference every day after practice. He showed everyone that sticking to your guns gets you success. He even showed everyone that being yourself gains you respect, right?

No. He hasn't gained respect, and he is ridiculed for his success everyday, and he has shown that being Tim Tebow gets harder every day. Maybe that is how our kids feel when they are feeling bullied, that every day is harder, that success isn't just putting your mind to it, and being yourself just isn't worth it.

Tim Tebow has done everything to be himself, something that we should recognize and promote. Instead, we, the media and society as a whole, have become the biggest bully our school of thought has ever seen.

If we want our kids to shape up, we need to shape up. You don't have to love Tim Tebow, but why hate him? He's only being himself.

Welcome!

2011-12-01T12:13:00.001-05:00

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