Beating up on Coughlin

A win against the Washington Redskins on Sunday gave New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin a short reprieve, but his style of discipline has many experts in the NFL wondering how long he will last.

Even before his first game with the Giants, Coughlin fined four veterans between $500 and $1,000 for not being early enough for a team meeting.

“There is no way I could play for Coughlin. He is mean and hateful,” said Terry Bradshaw, the Fox TV analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback. “You take veteran players like Mike Strahan and fine them for showing up (not early enough) for meetings? There’s a little part of me that hopes this guy falls flat on his face because that’s a total lack of respect for the players. I’m realizing this guy is just a jerk.”

Apparently, politicians aren’t the only ones allowed to flip-flop. Bradshaw said on the air Sunday that he regretted “to some extent” calling New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin a jerk the previous weekend.

In Sunday’s New York Post, columnist Phil Mushnick asked: “How is it that Fox’s show regularly includes Bradshaw in pandering sessions with the likes of Keyshawn Johnson and Warren Sapp, but Coughlin is condemned as a jerk?”

Ouch

Even Sharpe(r)

Tight end Shannon Sharpe, who now works for CBS, was even harder on Coughlin.

“The Giants have some serious issues with Tom Coughlin,” Sharpe said last week. “I personally feel if a team wants a disciplinarian they should hire Norman Schwarzkopf or Colin Powell. But if you want a coach, hire someone else.”

Capers can compete

Coughlin may have an equal in the Houston Texans’ Dom Capers.

Before training camp starts each year, Capers gives every player and coach a binder with the entire season scripted to the last minute. He is so meticulous that he accounts for every minute of every day for himself, from practice to team meetings to how much time he spends watching game film.

Says guard Chester Pitts: “Coach Capers is the most punctual man you’ll ever meet. If he says a meeting is going to start at 9, he means 8:45.”

Perhaps Capers should pencil in more wins in that binder.

Media bias

From Sports Illustrated’s Pete McEntegart of si.com:

“With Barry Bonds joining the 700-homer club Friday, sportswriters unearthed the New York Times’ story chronicling Babe Ruth’s 700th homer on July 13, 1934. The article’s first line flatly stated that the record by the onetime left-handed pitcher ‘promises to endure for all time.’ Most pundits viewed the overexuberance as charming evidence of how much baseball has changed, though critics said it simply underscored the Times’ longstanding bias toward left-wingers.”