Tom Coughlin says firing Giants assistants was ‘extremely difficult’
By Josh Sanchez
On Wednesday, the New York Giants made a difficult decision to fire longtime assistant coaches Mike Pope and Jerald Ingram. Pope, who has been with the team for all four of their Super Bowl wins, coached the tight ends, while Ingram was the team’s running backs coach.
While Pope was with the Giants for over two decades and Ingram worked with Coughlin for over two decades himself, so it was a difficult decision to part ways with his longtime friends.
Coughlin expressed as much whenever he commented on the decision to fire Pope and Ingram so that new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo could pick his own guys.
“Both of these men are very good talent evaluators and, in their own way, are very good teachers,” Coughlin said, via Conor Orr of the Newark Star-Ledger. “I decided to make a change in our staff that I believe will be productive going forward. These are very difficult decisions, but I felt they were in the best interests of the Giants moving forward.”
If the moves end up helping the Giants get back to the top and earn Coughlin another Super Bowl ring before he calls it a career, the hard decisions will be well work it.