New Jaguars executive vice president Tom Coughlin was brought in to fire up the base during the team's state of the franchise address on Wednesday.
His weapon of choice? A pretty intense Bruce Lee anecdote.
Here it is, in all its glory:
"Bruce Lee was a champion martial artist, the message is powerful and very direct and it matters not who it is -- it is the subject who matters. It is written by a writer friend who trained with Bruce Lee.
*"Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We'd run the three miles in 21 or 22 minutes, just under eight minutes a mile. So this morning he says to me 'we're going to go five.' I said 'Bruce, I can't go five. I'm a hell of a lot older than you are and I can't do five.' He says 'when we get to three, we'll shift gears and it's only two more miles and you'll do it.' I said 'okay, I'll go for it.' *
"So we get to three and we're heading into the fourth mile and I'm ok for the first three or four minutes. And then I really begin to give out. I'm tired. My heart is pounding. I can't go anymore and I say to him: Bruce if 'I run anymore, I'm liable to have a heart attack and die.'
"And Bruce says to me: 'Then die!' It made me so mad I went the full five miles. Afterward, I went to the shower and I wanted to talk to him about that. And I said 'Why did you say that? And he said 'because you might as well be dead. Seriously. If you always put limits on what you can do. Physical, or anything else. It'll spread over the rest of your life. It will spread over your work and your morality. Into your entire being. There are no limits, there are plateaus but we must not stay there. We must fight ourselves beyond the plateaus. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level. A man's reach must exceed his grasp."
It's easy to overlook the Coughlin addition especially now that he's not in a coaching role. But having covered him for a few years in New York, there is no one who is more intense or bought-in than Coughlin. He is convinced that his way works and will weed out anyone around him who is not tirelessly driven. Does this have its drawbacks? Absolutely. Coughlin was in danger of running off the tracks before softening his stance a few years into his tenure. At times with the Giants, his message ran afoul, like when the club started 0-6 in 2013.
But this role, far more architectural, could end up being the best of both worlds for Coughlin. The Jaguars certainly hope so.
