Ben McAdoo wasn't hired to succeed Tom Coughlin, John Mara says
Offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo of the Giants goes over a play with Eli Manning during the first half of a game against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: Jim McIsaac
John Mara busted the myth that Ben McAdoo was hired not only as Tom Coughlin's offensive coordinator, but as his successor.
"I laugh when some of you write some of that stuff," the Giants' president and CEO said on Tuesday. "A year ago I didn't know Ben McAdoo from Bob McAdoo. Some of you have written that we brought him in here and anointed him the next head coach. The first time I met him was after Tom had hired him and I went down and introduced myself and welcomed him. Tom interviewed a number of candidates last year for the offensive coordinator position, but the final decision was always going to be his. I think he made a good choice."
Mara also cleaned up the narrative that he and Jerry Reese forced Coughlin to part ways with former offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. It may have come to that, especially after Mara famously (he says regrettably) called the offense "broken" after the 2013 season. But Mara insisted that he never had a chance to make his preference known.
"It has always been the case in this organization that the head coach makes the final call on assistant coaches and whether he needs to make any changes or not, contrary to popular belief," Mara said. "Tom was not forced to part ways with Kevin Gilbride last year. The first discussion that Jerry and I had with Tom after the season, we walked into Jerry's office, Tom came in and said to us that Kevin is going to be retiring. Before we said anything to him. This notion that we forced him to fire Kevin Gilbride is absolutely not true."
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
