Gifford: If there's a Ring of Honor for blowing whistles and pumping balls, Jim Lee Howell deserves to be in it

So many people are either taking shots at or coming to the defense of Tom Coughlin this week. Whether it’s Michael Strahan and Bill Parcells saying that he hasn’t lost the team or Tiki Barber insisting that he’s in crisis mode and that perception quickly becomes reality.

Well, Frank Gifford wanted to get his two cents in about the head coach too. Only his thoughts pre-dated Coughlin.

Giff was asked about fellow Ring of Honor inductee Jim Lee Howell, the Giants’ head coach from 1954-1960.

“He had enough sense to stay out of the way,” Gifford said. “I’m not demeaning him with that either. I don’t know how many people would have enough common sense or whatever would be the word – strength – to turn it over to two guys who knew a heck of a lot more than he did.”

Gifford was referring to assistant coaches Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi, who went on do a few things in their coaching lives after leaving the Giants.

“He used to kid about it. He said ‘All I do is blow the whistle and pump up the balls.’ That’s about all he did, so he was right. I bet none of you could get on the Ring (of Honor) with that. Nobody. I’m not the one who picked him for the Ring either.”

Gifford later was asked whether there was a time when he or others ever questions a coach’s play calling.

“The only time I ever questioned myself is because Jim Lee Howell always made the third-down decisions,” he said.