Dec. 30--New York Giants co-owner John Mara called his team's recently concluded 6-10 season "an embarrassment," but that's not preventing him from bringing back the guys in charge for at least one more season.
Mara announced Tuesday the Giants will be bringing back Coach Tom Coughlin and General Manager Jerry Reese for the 2015 season, saying the team has had back-to-back strong drafts and needs another next spring to bounce back from consecutive losing seasons.
The Giants have won two Super Bowls during the tenures of Coughlin (11 seasons) and Reese (eight seasons), but the team has made the playoffs just one time in the last six seasons.
A 25-24 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 13 for the Giants' seventh straight loss was a low point for Mara, who said he wanted to fire everyone after the game. But he didn't, and the team responded with three straight wins before a season-ending loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
"I still believe we can win with him," Mara said of Coughlin. "If I didn't believe that then it wouldn't have mattered how many Super Bowls he won in the past, it would be senseless to go forward with him. But I'm looking at how hard the players play for him and how attentive they are, and I look at his energy level and how much he still wants to win and how driven he is."
That being said, Mara was asked if he'd describe next season as a "win-or-else proposition for a lot of people in this franchise."
"I don't think that's an unfair statement," he said.
