Tom Coughlin isn't going anywhere.
Not that you expected him to be going anywhere after winning a second Super Bowl as Giants head coach in February. Talk of an extension started the second Tom Brady's Hail Mary fell short and the only mystery was when the deal would actually be done.
If you had June 6, you win the pool. The Giants announced Wednesday that Coughlin's contract has been extended through the 2014 season.
Coughlin's contract was set to expire after this season, but that didn't have much chance of happening even before the Giants held off the Patriots. The Giants didn't make a change after Coughlin had two straight years without playoff berths, so it was hard to imagine they'd make him a lame duck after winning the NFC East.
Now, it will almost certainly be up to Coughlin to decide when his contract expires. He's turning 66 in August and will be 68 when this extension runs its course, which means he's pretty much assured himself of going out on his terms unless something goes horribly wrong for the organization.
Whenever Coughlin's done, he'll have the second-longest tenure of any Giants coach (he's not catching Steve Owen unless he goes into his 80s) and he'll pass Bill Parcells for second place on the franchise's all-time wins list. That, plus those Super Bowls, make a pretty good case for Coughlin as the best coach in history.
That argument would be moot with another title. It's not an easy thing to pull off, but Coughlin has some decent weapons to use in pursuit of it.
Sports
Eli Manning's prime has a lot of time left in it and the defense remains capable of striking great fear in the hearts of opposing quarterbacks. Now that Osi Umenyiora has given up his one-man Occupy East Rutherford movement, there isn't a distraction to be found either.
That makes this contract extension just one more reason to smile for a guy who might be losing count of them before too much longer.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
