New York Giants: Could Coughlin and Manning find their way to the HoF?
By A. Mazzolini
With about six and a half hours to go before Super Bowl XLVI it’s time to get going with one more post about the biggest game in the National Football League, if not all sports. Mine was made in a
a couple of days ago, I have given you all the
that you can make and told you about how with a win
Eli can finally come out of his brother’s shadow
. So, what else can we talk about this game? Well, in my first post about the Super Bowl I talked about the
, but the one thing I didn’t touch on was: could they be candidate for the Hall of Fame with a win today. Well, today that is going to be my post!
In all there are twenty-one head coaches inducted into the Hall of Fame, which I found to be a low number, thinking that they would have been double (if not more) that amount. I would say that without a doubt if coach Coughlin was not to win another Super Bowl the chance of him heading into the Hall of Fame would be none. However with a second ring, having had seven 10+ wins seasons (out of 16) and gone to the post season nine times, the resume could now be a bit more entancing to the committee. I guess in the end for the Giants head coach the post Super Bowl record would be the difference between having a chance or not. If coach Coughlin wins this afternoon and has a couple of more good seasons, meaning 10+ wins per year, appearances in the post season each time, then he might just end up in Canton, Ohio.
As far as Eli Manning, I have to believe that a second win in the Super Bowl, along with more seasons like this one, could earn him a bust in the building that showcases the best of the best in the sport. He has had a couple of seasons where the interceptions were in twenties, however in the last four season his completion percentage has been above 60%, while for the eight season he is 58.4%. Besides his first season, when he only played seven games (and had a 1-6 record), Eli Manning has thrown at least 20 TD passes each year in the NFL. In the eight seasons the Giants QB has had 24 winning drives, of which seven were this season. In the end, just like his coach, Manning is going to have to back up a win today with some more seasons where he is among the top of his position in order to receive the call from the Hall of Fame.
In the end, if I have to choose, it would be more likely that Eli Manning makes it to Canton, maybe just because he is part of the first family in football. On the other hand I doubt that anyone, including the New York Giants’ fanbase truly cares about that right now, and they just want to see the duo of head coach/quarterback win their second Super Bowl in four seasons. And if that was to come it could just be the first step on the road to the biggest speech of their career once their seasons are over!