You bleed Giants blue, don’t you? So you’re worried, aren’t you?
Your team hasn’t had to hire a head coach in 12 years, and it already feels like 12 years since Tom Coughlin walked out the Big Blue door before he was going to be gently nudged out, doesn’t it? The same Tom Coughlin who interviewed Monday with the Eagles.
But hey, many of you were convinced that it was time for a change after three straight losing seasons and four straight out of the playoffs, enough with your organization’s ages-old stability-and-continuity mantra already.
Except it’s beginning to feel to you as if it’s last call and Miss America ain’t walking through that door.
And guess what: Unless Nick Saban, best coach in America not named Bill Belichick, decides that he has achieved everything a man can achieve at Alabama, that he has plenty to prove in the NFL after flopping with the Dolphins and an offer he cannot refuse with the same personnel power that Coughlin wielded alongside Jerry Reese is his for the taking, well, Miss America ain’t walking through that door.
Sorry, but it is too late now to realize that the best candidate on the open market is none other than the 69-year-old coach who delivered you two Super Bowls with Eli Manning.
Damn right you should be worried.
The devil you knew left with a better résumé than the devils you and your selection committee don’t know.
A part of you is OK with John Mara and Reese doing their due diligence because this is such a critical hire for the franchise. The last thing you want is another Ray Handley or another Rich Kotite.
And another part of you cries out: This is the New York Football Giants, for crying out loud. It shouldn’t be that difficult attracting the next big thing, a rising star … or some mystery big name who has the pelts on the wall and appreciates your team’s tradition and the passion of you and your loyal fans and the biggest and brightest stage.
You have legitimate questions that fuel your high anxiety, and I’d love to answer them for you. Except no one can answer them for you.
For example: Your Giants interviewed Adam Gase. The Dolphins hired Adam Gase. Did your Giants blow it by not hiring Adam Gase?
Maybe. Maybe not. This might be a good time to remind you that Broncos fans were doing cartwheels over Josh McDaniels. Until they weren’t. You and your father were livid with George Young for letting Bill Belichick escape to Cleveland. Until you weren’t. Until you were again when you were subjected to Handley’s Reign of Error.
Here’s something else you should be wondering: Do your Giants know what they have in Ben McAdoo, or don’t they? Is he ready to be a head coach in this league, or isn’t he? Does interviewing Mike Smith and Doug Marrone and Hue Jackson and Steve Spagnuolo indicate they don’t believe he is? That a proven head coach is more preferable to them than what they deem to be a Hail Mara?
None of you should have gone into this coaching search with blinders on. Every candidate on the Giants’ short list has warts. Smith has the best record, and knows how to build relationships, but his last two years in Atlanta were awful. Marrone resurrected the Syracuse program and nearly ended the Bills’ playoff drought, but bolted after two seasons (thanks in part to a $4 million opt-out clause in his contract) over the ownership uncertainty and was criticized for being thin-skinned. Jackson was 8-8 in his one season coaching the Raiders. Spagnuolo was 10-38 in his three seasons coaching the Rams.
Uninspiring choices to most of you, and fraught with peril.
What your team faces is the very dilemma the Yankees faced replacing Joe Torre. Coughlin was as beloved by his players as Torre was by his. Both were living legends when they left. Joe Girardi was in some ways the polar opposite of Torre — much more intense and energetic and much less a calming father figure and media favorite — but he won a championship in 2009, his second season on the bench, and he’s still here. He had plenty to prove after one turbulent year managing the Marlins.
Your Giants need a Joe Girardi. The problem for them is identifying one. The problem always is finding the right man. No Yankees fan alive could have envisioned a retread like Torre winning four World Series championships. None of you, or your fathers, could have imagined a Jersey guy named Bill Parcells carving out a Hall of Fame career.
Your team made the bed. If you can’t sleep in it at night right now, I completely understand. You shouldn’t.