Unnecessary roughness, you bet.
Tom Coughlin was hit at the knees on the sideline late in Saturday's game by his running back D.J. Ware, who was pushed after the whistle and out of bounds by Jets linebacker Aaron Maybin.
Coughlin was briefly attended to on the sideline and got back up to coach the closing minutes of the 29-14 victory, standing on his own power.
"Never better, never better and thank you very much for asking," said Coughlin, fielding the first question of his postgame press conference. "I will end up on NFL Films forever."
Between the lines, the play came at a critical juncture in the game. Ware, needing to bleed the clock on third-and-three with the Giants up by six and 3:34 to go, took just his second handoff and ran for 17 yards before the ensuing collision.
"I saw him when I was coming out of bounds. I was like, oh…," said Ware, holding in the rest of that thought. "I hit him. I was trying to pull up, but I couldn't do anything. My momentum was going too fast, and I just landed on him. I hope he's alright, though."
The 15-yard penalty moved the ball to the Jets 43, and even though the Giants punted four plays later, the penalty helped pin the Jets back at their own eight-yard line. That's when Chris Canty sacked Mark Sanchez in the end zone for a safety and a late eight-point lead.
Chris Snee, Coughlin's right guard and son-in-law, didn't see his coach go down but knows he's a tough guy.
"I still haven't seen the hit," Snee said after the game in the locker room. "I saw him hobble in here and he made a reference he was going to be in for treatment tomorrow with everyone else. I'm sure it hurts. I'm sure he's going to ice it down. But he's a tough guy."
The 65-year-old coach luckily had the perfect remedy – a win.
"I am never better," Coughlin said. "Nobody is worried about how fast I am and nobody was ever worried about that, as a matter of fact. I got it on the knee but I think it is up higher. You can imagine what the players said when they went by, 'No toughness, no championship.' I said, 'You are exactly right.'"
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