NFL Players Are Tired of His Shit

18 Dec, 2019

The Jacksonville Jaguars have announced the firing of executive vice president Tom Coughlin, just two days after the NFL Players Association went public with a breathtaking number of grievances filed against the team’s front office since the former coach’s hiring.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan explained the decision Wednesday, claiming that he had been planning to part ways with Coughlin after the season, but reconsidered and decided to make the change immediately. Given what the NFLPA was claiming, it’s hard to blame him for changing the timeline.

In its letter, the NFLPA detailed a combative relationship with Coughlin’s front office over the Jaguars’ insistence, to the point of $700,000 in fines against former Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., that injured players rehab with the team during the offseason. That was a clear violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

The conduct of Coughlin’s front office was reportedly so toxic that more than 25 percent of player grievances filed in the past two years have been against the Jaguars.

The letter finished with an ominous warning: “You as players may want to consider this when you have a chance to select your next club.” Essentially, the players union was warning players against signing with a specific organization, a move rarely seen in today’s game.

In a statement to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Coughlin said he was “responsible for all things related to football” and that he takes great pride in the team’s accomplishments, but didn’t acknowledge the accusations against him.

Coughlin has gained a reputation over the years as one of the NFL’s harshest taskmasters, and it appeared that his desire to control players was great enough to ignore their CBA-backed rights. That approach predictably made him unpopular in the Jacksonville locker room, to the point that Fowler and former Jaguars star cornerback Jalen Ramsey took victory laps on Twitter after the NFLPA went public with Coughlin’s conduct.

Coughlin is now 73 years old and was unpopular enough on his last team that the NFLPA felt the need to swing its full might against his tenure.

Any team that wants him to bring him on in any kind of executive role is going to have to publicly explain the decision, and any player on that team would have the upper hand if he went public with a grievance.

If this is it for Coughlin in the NFL, he’ll at least be able to say his career came full circle in Jacksonville. He got his first NFL head coaching job with the Jaguars in their inaugural 1995 season, then won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants. He came back to the Jaguars in 2017, and has now been fired within three years.

Coughlin has long been perceived as one of the most prominent followers of the NFL’s old school mentality when it comes to player treatment. With this latest episode, it might be time for that school to close its doors.

Yahoo Sports

Image BigCatCountry twitter

Mentioned In This Post: