Book Review: A Giant Win by Tom Coughlin
A Giant Win is a perfectly serviceable “football athlete/coach memoir” that isn’t going to bring any earth-shattering revelations to the table but is probably a pleasant walk down memory lane for any Giants fans.
The biggest wrinkle here is the primary focus on the Giants’ especially unlikely 2008 Super Bowl victory over the seemingly unstoppable New England Patriots. Coughlin structures his book around the game and then uses events and players from the game as springboards for some longer passages giving everything more context. While his media portrayal as a strict disciplinarian was slightly overblown (at least as far as he tells it, but he’s probably right), Coughlin did run a decently tight ship and if there were any crazy acts of debauchery committed by the 2007 Giants they aren’t depicted here. Rather, you get some largely positive reflections on players like Michael Strahan and Eli Manning who were crucial to the championship and how Coughlin and his coaches prepared for and coached one of the best Super Bowls ever.
Coughlin enjoyed a long and mostly-successful coaching career across college and professional football and although you learn a little bit about his younger years there’s not much about his tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars or even his second Super Bowl victory with the Giants in 2012. Maybe that will be another book or something, but I would have appreciated trading a bit of depth for breadth. The latter part of the book does deal with Coughlin caring for his wife as she battled the devastating brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy near the end of her life, which was emotionally powerful and hopefully at least a little therapeutic for Coughlin.
I grew up in New Jersey and was a senior in high school in 2008 and though I wasn’t a Giants fan I did have some affinity for the team (only psychopaths or people from Boston root for the Patriots). If you’re considering the book you’re probably a Giants fan and if so you’ll enjoy it and find it pleasant and nostalgic. A lot of it will be familiar to you, but there is probably enough material that is new/you forgot about to make it a fun read and worth the time investment.
7/10