The Big Tuna has spoken and he says,
Sorry Charlie, it was Tom Coughlin — not Greg Schiano — who was at fault for the big
kneel-down controversy at the end the Giants-Buccaneers game Sunday.
Talking on Sirius/XM radio yesterday, former New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells laid the blame on his former assistant Coughlin for getting defensive about Schiano not submitting during the victory formation on the last play of the game.
"Well, I've seen it before. I don't take exception to it," said Parcells.
While Parcells was critical of Coughlin scolding the former Rutgers coach at midfield after the the Buccaneers bum-rushed Eli Manning, he thinks the Giants quarterback is more than tough enough to get pushed on his backside.
"I just think he's a terrific player,"
Parcells told Chris "Mad Dog" Russo. "Actually, I don't know Eli very well but I did run into him this winter after they won the Super Bowl. And I told him that his performance in San Francisco where he took ... one of the worst beatings that I've ever seen a quarterback take in that game and he hung in there 'til the end."
"And I just told him that based on that performance alone he's won me over as a supporter full time," he said. "It's like a fighter that keeps getting up, You gotta root for him."
On Coughlin's televised on-field confrontation with the rookie NFL head coach Schiano after the issue, Parcells — a big Coughlin supporter — was less enthused.
"I think I would have handled it a little differently if I was on the other side," he said. "I may have not called attention to it at that time and maybe made a phone call a little later in the next week."
When Tuna speaks, Giants fans listen.
