N.Y. Giants: Owners Pull Plug On Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese

From the desk of:  DO IT FOR THE DUKE

Cleaning House!

New York Giants: Owners John Mara and Steve Tisch Decide It's Time To Make Wholesale Changes.

John Mara confirmed what many fans like myself suspected - it was Ben McAdoo's idea to bench Eli Manning all along.

Sure, Mr. Mara acknowledged he could have easily put a stop to it, and took full responsibility for the poor manner in which things were handled.  In fact, he went as far as consulting with partner Steven Tisch, and together they decided it was time to make wholesale changes!

Giants President John Mara announced on Monday Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese have been dismissed respectively as head coach and general manager of the New York Giants.

ICYMI: 

Ben McAdoo Decides Eli No Longer The Mann..

Heaven forbid Ben McAdoo tailor a system more suitable to Eli Manning's style.

Good coaches do that.  Stubborn, ideological ones, do not.

Since his first day as offensive coordinator, Ben McAdoo has been pushing his West Coast dope on Eli Manning, and till the very end sniveled when things went badly.

McAdoo seemingly didn't have much to say last season when Eli led the Giants to an 11-5 record and a return to the playoffs.  He somehow had even less to say regarding his wide receivers' ill advised trip to South Beach just before said playoff game, then offered absolutely nothing during the post-game in response to Odell turning in his worst performance as a professional.

He once again refused this season to take up issue with Beckham after infamously impersonating a dog peeing in the end zone during a game against Philadelphia.  McAdoo has also steadfastly refused to acknowledge any hints of poor play on behalf of the offensive line, and tried minimizing the numerous injuries among the receivers at every turn.

Instead, McAdoo used his words to levy criticism after criticism against Eli Manning.  He even seemly threw his proverbial hands in the air by handing off play calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan.  But at no time did McAdoo ever once claim responsibility for his own flawed methodology.  He'd much rather have blamed Eli Manning for not carrying the Giants offense like Aaron Rogers carries that of the Packers ... when Rogers is on the field, that is.

Eli, on the other hand, started 210 straight games until Ben McAdoo stepped in.

Once the Giants were mathematically eliminated from this year's playoffs, Ben the Outsider with no real connection to Giants tradition and history, thought it wise to suggest benching the organization's greatest ever quarterback in favor of Geno Smith, or perhaps more accurately, someone better suited to play his awkward style of West Coast nonsense.

All that being said, Jerry Reese signed off on McAdoo's folly.  Generally speaking, though, he put Ben McAdoo in a position to fail, just as he put Kevin Gilbride and Tom Coughlin in positions to fail during their latter days as OC and head coach of the New York Giants.

What started well for Jerry Reese has ended horribly.  The organizational torch was passed to him after the 2006 season by former general manager Ernie Accorsi.  After a fruitful 2007 draft the Giants promptly won a Super Bowl.  Four years later Reese squeezed out the last bit of goodness from the fruits of Ernie Accorsi's labors in capturing yet another Super Bowl.  After which, Jerry Reese failed to sustain the organization's competitiveness.

The Giants indeed spiraled out of relevance.  Ineffective drafting, prohibitive manipulation of the salary cap, and Jerry Reese's over-reliance on free agency have cost the organization dearly.  His inability to replenish and resupply the roster with representative talent has resulted in a 41-51 record since 2012 through the present time, three times posting double-digit losses.

Ben McAdoo deserved to get fired based on the merits of his own shortcomings.  Jerry Reese, because he set the conditions.

BIG BLUE

SHAME ON YOU

That's what the billboard along Route 80 in New Jersey said, and John Mara heard it loud and clear. 

I'll hold off on critiquing his performance during all this for another post. 

In the mean time, Mara is a business man.  Four games remain in the Giants season, and three are at home.  Mara is no fool either, and knew better to stave off a Big Blue maelstrom.  Prominent former Giants players were threatening to parade the sidelines this week wearing Eli Manning #10 jerseys.  Ownership also ran the risk of season ticket holders selling the balance of their games, thus turning MetLife Stadium into the Big Blue Pit of Misery.  It may already be too late for some.  I'm sure in the coming games there will be more Cowboys and Redskins jerseys than usual. 

The question now becomes, how many more than usual?

N.Y. Giants: Dean Coughlin Cleaned Up Animal House

From the desk of:  DO IT FOR THE DUKE

The man who put down a Giant insurrection...

NEW YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL: Thank you, Tom Coughlin, for all you've done as Head Coach of Big Blue.

I remember John McVay's last season as head coach in 1976, then grew into my Giants fandom under the stern guidance of Ray Perkins.

Years later, the Giants won Super Bowl XXV, I turned 24-years old, Bill Parcells left, in turn leaving me despondent, and thinking the Giants would never win ever again.

It's true.

Then Ray Handley happened, making Dan Reeves a necessary, and welcome sight for sore eyes.   Thankfully, the 1993 season served as somewhat of a healer.  Despite the departures and respective retirements of many former Big Blue champions, Reeves helped me move on with life.

Then came Jim Fassel, and what I dub the Delta House years (lots of fun, but riddled with typical frat house consequences).

What a bunch of knuckleheads - really - the whole lot of 'em.  For better or worse, guys like Jesse Armstead, Amani Toomer, Jason Sehorn, Jeremy Shockey, Keith Hamilton, Kerry Collins, Michael Strahan and Tiki Barker made Giants football exciting again, but in the most undisciplined manner conceivable.

Wellington Mara, however, was getting on in years, and so the renewed success of the Giants under Jim Fassel, and winning the 2000 NFC championship became perhaps one of the happiest moments of his life.

In truth, that Giants edition was extremely likable.  It took me nearly 10 years, but I was finally over the departure of Bill Parcells (kinda) because of these guys.

Make no mistake, however, Fassel was the ultimate player's coach.  Allowing the inmates to run the asylum ultimately cost the Giants greater glories, that sometimes were lost in quite embarrassing fashion.  Jim Fassel earned his dismissal.  There's little debate there.  Change was clearly needed.

Enter Tom Coughlin - chewing barbed wire and spitting napalm at reporters during his introductory presser.

The unruly Giants didn't take too well to their new commander and controller.

Foolish me sided with the players in those first two years - all but Tiki Barber that is.  I did not appreciate Barber's unrepentant, open defiance and denunciation of Coughlin.  That's not how I want my team's players behaving.  Therefore, in Tiki's case I was totally on board with the head coach.   Otherwise, my son chastised me for my initial lack of Coughlin acceptance.  Then by 2010, I was the one staunchly defending him against naysayers calling for his firing.

Jerry Reese was made to deal with Michael Strahan, and I applauded Reese's dismissive treatment of Strahan at the time.  But, what has transpired over the last few years falls mainly on him, not Coughlin.

Did the Giants suffer from poor coaching decisions this season?  Yes, but, that would necessitate expanding this conversation to include Eli Manning's play changing at the line within this new west coast system.

Sure, there's more to this than just that.  That said, somewhere between the seemingly ceaseless litany of criticisms levied upon Tom Coughlin by Tiki Barber, and the two Lombardi trophies added to the Giants collection under Tom Coughlin, lies the truth regarding his long tenure as head coach.

Do I think Tom Coughlin quit ... because it was right for the Giants?

No.  The Giants resorted to replacing both their offensive and defensive coordinators first.  Naturally, the head coach is next in line for modification.  I think Coughlin was respectfully squeezed out, and given the opportunity to leave under his own terms with class, and his dignity in tact.

Steve Tisch quietly wanted Coughlin gone last season.  If you remember, Steve Tisch publicly lashed out again midway through this season.  Suffice to say, he has not been happy.  Then again, we all know John Mara is the real shot caller, and even he couldn't be dissuaded from enacting reform - not this time.

Tom Coughlin restored order to Giants football.  Looking back on the Jim Fassel years, I say that with confidence.

Now, the time is right for change.

My lasting images of Tom Coughlin are three: his frostbitten face during the 2007 NFC championship game in the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, and the two times his float passed me by during the Super Bowl victory parades down the Canyon of Heroes.

I've had my issues with Tom Coughlin.  I stated them clearly to open the season.

Tiki Barber still disparages his former coach till this day, recently saying Coughlin took the will to continue playing football from him.  To that I say, the Giants wound up better for it.

That's life in the NFL, Tiki.  Get over it.

Tom Coughlin was a great coach.

He'll be difficult to replace.