Report: Tom Coughlin Recovering From Bicycle Accident That Hospitalized Him
Former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach and executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin, 73, is recovering from injuries sustained in a bicycle accident in Jacksonville last weekend, he told ESPN.
According to a report from Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen, Coughlin spent a night in the hospital due to a bicycle accident that resulted in four fractured ribs, a slightly punctured lung and stitches in his head.
Coughlin, who was relieved of his duties as Jacksonville's top front office executive by Jaguars owner Shad Khan in January, told ESPN the accident occurred after a man on a racing bike, "comes out of nowhere and clips the front of my bike,"
"Coughlin, 73, first went home before his family convinced him to go to the Baptist Health emergency room, where he underwent X-rays and a CT scan. Doctors told Coughlin he faces a four- to six-week recovery," ESPN reported.
Coughlin had two different tenures in Jacksonville, each leaving a lasting legacy of different proportions. He was the team's first-ever head coach and general manager, leading the team in their first year as an expansion team in 1995 and coaching them through the 2002 season.
In eight years as Jacksonville's head coach, Coughlin compiled a 68-60 regular season record, which still stands today as the best mark of any Jaguars head coach in team history. He also led the Jaguars to a 4-4 postseason record and two AFC Championship appearances (1996, 1999).
Coughlin's most recent tenure in Jacksonville was strictly in the front office as opposed to on the field, but it was a high-profile role nonetheless. In three years, Coughlin oversaw a Jaguars franchise that went 21-27 in the regular season and 2-1 in the postseason, with each playoff game coming in 2017, the same year Jacksonville went 10-6.
The Jaguars advanced all the way to the AFC Championship in 2017 thanks to a number of additions Coughlin either made or agreed to allow the team to make the previous season, adding players such as Calais Campbell, A.J. Bouye and Leonard Fournette.
Jacksonville would tumble over the next two years, however, going 11-21 since the 2017 season. Coughlin had strained relationships with several players, including former star cornerback Jalen Ramsey, and those relationships reached a tipping point when the NFLPA sent a scathing letter of indictment addressed to the Jaguars after winning grievances against the franchise and Coughlin.
In between those tenures, he won two Super Bowls while coaching the New York Giants between 2004-15.