"Football" WOO!

A Story by Postkidz

At Eisenhower there’s always been a tradition of Giants fans smack talking the Jets fans, and the Jets fans smack talking the Giants fans. The teams split the school between a sea of green and a sea of blue, and whenever they play, fans are on the edge of their seats. These two teams are lead by their coaches, big mouth Rex Ryan, and short tempered Thomas Coughlin. In the last two seasons the Giants have failed to reach the playoffs, while the Jets have reached the American Football Conference Championships twice. Due to Coughlin’s lack of performance in the last two years he has been under the gun and due to Ryan’s big mouthed play people have always though that he was all talk and no play. Now the question is which coach will stay longer as a head coach in New York.

Rex Ryan
Rex Ryan is now in his third year as coach of the Jets, and was the defensive coordinator for many college football teams like the Cincinnati Bearcats, the Oklahoma Sooners, and for Kansas State. Ryan was soon brought up to the NFL and served as a defensive assistant for the Cardinals until he received a job offer from the Baltimore Ravens. He was promoted to the position of defensive line coach there and led the defensive of the Ravens to win the Superbowl in 2000. Ryan became defensive coordinator of the Ravens in 2005, but due to a very bad performance in 2007 by the team, the entire coaching staff was fired. He applied with many NFL teams including the Ravens, trying to get a job as a head coach and was able to get his job as the Ravens defensive coordinator back, but was disappointed when he wasn’t able to become a head coach. In 2008, in Ryan’s final year with the Ravens, Ryan lead them to the AFC Championships to finish with a disappointing loss to the Steelers. Even though the loss was very disappointing, Rex Ryan said he got what he wanted out of the game. He accepted a head coach offer from the New York Jets.
Ryan was able to beat out a number of other coaching contenders for the head coaching spot of the NY Jets. One of his first major decisions as head coach of the Jets was to trade some draft spots top pick up Mark Sanchez out of USC. He lead the Jets strongly in their first season finishing 9-7, and reaching the AFC Championships to lose to the Colts. He finished 11-5 in his second year, and reached the AFC Championships to lose in a very disappointing loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has made some great trades and free agent signs over the year picking up people like Ladanian Tomlinson, Santonio Homes, and Plaxico Burres. This year he hopes to win the Super Bowl but many have doubts on how much longer he will stay as the NY head coach.

Tom Coughlin

Tom Coughlin is the head coach for the New York Giants. He has been the wide receiver coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants. He then made it to being the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and finally the New York Giants. When the Giants won Super Bowl XXV, Tom Coughlin was the assistant of Bill Parcells. When they won the Super Bowl, it was against the New England Patriots and they only won by three points. Tom Coughlin has been the head coach of the New York Giants since 2004 and is the 16th coach of the Giants. For his coaching style, he is known as a disciplinary coach due to his attention for detail. He is sometimes known as “Colonel Coughlin” because he is such a strict coach. Before he made it to the NFL, he was the quarterback’s coach for Boston College. This year he has lost great players like Steve Smith, Jonathon Goff, and Terrell Thomas. So far Tom Coughlin has won over 130 games in his career and hopes to increase that number by the end of the 2011-2012 season.

Tom Coughlin is 65 years old and was born in Waterloo, New York on August 31, 1946. After living there for a long time, Tom Coughlin went to Syracuse University for college and played running back for the Syracuse Orange. While he was there, he broke the record for most single season pass receiving record in 1967. He played with Larry Csonka and Floyd Little during college. Larry played the fullback position and Floyd Little was also a running back. Both of these men played positions that had a lot to do with Coughlin and that is why it was such a great accomplishment to play for Syracuse Orange.

Eisenhower’s Thoughts
Many of us here at Eisenhower have opinions on how these coaches are doing that are largely based on the teams that we like. Many people stuck with their favorite head coaches, and didn’t want to say anything good about the other coach in New York. Giants fans like Joe and Matean in eighth grade said that Coughlin makes good decisions and Rex Ryan just talks too much, while Jets fans like Matt Stern and Ms. Salmon said that Rex Ryan is better by far, and his performance in his two years as head coach has shown it. Mr. Finale, a strong Jets fan, said that although he likes Ryan much more, he thinks Coughlin has an edge because of his Superbowl.

Tom Coughlin and Rex Ryan are both very respectable coaches and have accomplished a lot over their lives. As fans of our New York football teams we really appreciate what they do. They light up the field every time they step on, and excite all of their fans. Hopefully, these two coaches will extend their stay as New York football coaches and continue to excite us.