A tale of two Toms: if you think Tom Coughlin is a cold, calculating, demanding control freak, you're right. But he's also a compassionate, caring man whose heart melts for people who are suffering

Sporting News, The, Nov 15, 2004 by Dennis Dillon

Tenderhearted Tom morphed right back into Tyrannical Tom.

A long and winding road

You can drive from Rochester, N.Y., to Giants Stadium in about six hours. If you're a football coach, the trip can take a lot longer. It took Tom Coughlin 34 years to advance from head coach at Rochester Institute of Technology to head coach of the Giants. Along the way, he coached Doug Flutie in college, won a Super Bowl ring as an assistant with the Giants in 1990 and took an expansion team in Jacksonville to the AFC championship game in the team's second season.

1969        Syracuse                            Graduate assistant
1970-73     Rochester Institute of Technology   Head coach (16-15-2)
1974-76     Syracuse                            QBs coach-offensive
                                                  backfield coach
1977-80                                         Offensive coordinator
1981-83     Boston College                      Offensive coordinator
                                                  -QBs coach
1984-85     Philadelphia Eagles                 Wide receivers coach
1986-87     Green Bay Packers                   Wide receivers coach
1988-90     New York Giants                     Wide receivers coach
1991-93     Boston College                      Head coach (21-12-1)
1994-2002   Jacksonville Jaguars                Head coach (68-60)
2004        New York Giants                     Head coach (5-2)

Funny side up

When he's sitting, Tom Coughlin has a way of exposing his lighter side.

Coughlin's first job as a head football coach was at Rochester Institute of Technology. One night, he was in a rocking chair at the home of Bill Carey, the school's basketball coach, talking about the upcoming football game.

"He's a very intense guy, and when he'd get talking about something, it was sort of like a snowball rolling downhill. He'd get more and more excited about it," says Carey, who coached Coughlin in baseball and basketball at Central High School in Waterloo, N.Y. "He kept getting all fired up as he talked about the game. He got rocking and talking, rocking and talking, and--pow!--the chair exploded."

Keli Coughlin, Tom's older daughter, recalls a family vacation in Wyoming a few years ago.

"We were all mountain biking on a trail," says Keli. "He was worried about everybody else--again, being the supervisor--and not himself. My younger sister, Katie, was right behind him, and when he looked back to make sure she was OK, he crashed head-on into a tree. Luckily, he was OK."

Michael Huyghue, former vice president of football operations for the Jaguars, remembers being on an airplane with Coughlin when a headline in USA Today caught the coach's eye.

"It said the average married couple has sex two or three times a week," says Huyghue. "Tom looked at that and said, 'I've got to get in touch with Judy (his wife) and find out who she's been spending time with. If this is true, she has some explaining to do.'"