Tiki remembers hearing from players on the Giants shortly after his retirement that Tom Coughlin had changed his demeanor and attitude towards his players, something that Tiki addressed with John Mara during his exit interview after calling it a career.
“He just can’t treat people the way that he treats them,” Tiki told Mara. “And not just his players.”
Tiki then heard from friends still on the team that the Giants head coach had taken that refrain to heart.
“He changed, to his credit…and that’s what good coaches do,” Tiki said. “Especially when you have good veterans on the team, like those Giants did.
“Can you change? Of course you can. No matter how old you are, the cliché holds. And he adjusted to it, and it was beneficial to everyone in that organization.”
With that in mind, and reports of coordinators not liking Brian Daboll’s fiery nature on the sidelines, does the current Giants head coach need to change his ways? Tiki doesn’t view it as the same situation as Coughlin’s.
“Does Brian Daboll need to change? I don’t know,” Tiki said. “With Coach Coughlin, it felt like everyone had an issue here or there. With Daboll, it feels like it was just a couple coaches, and they were on the other side of the ball. The players seem to still love him. The organization seems to still love him. It’s just a couple of coaches. So, does he need to change? Not really.
I don’t see this as a crisis.”