Tom Coughlin is a throwback, the type of head coach who believes being respected by his players comes first, and being liked, well, why would you care about that?
So it shouldn't come as a shock that the 65-year-old New York Giants coach was named the NFL coach whom players would least like to play for, according to the latest midseason player poll released by Sporting News.
The publication polled 111 players from 31 teams. Players were unable to nominate their own coaches, which probably helped keep the vote total down for several of them. Coughlin "earned" 22 votes, just beating out Dolphins dead-man-walking Tony Sparano. Bill Belichick -- who, like Coughlin and Sparano -- hails from the Bill Parcells family tree, finished third.
(Something tells us, Big Tuna would get a kick out of this.)
The complete list:
Coughlin, New York Giants: 22
Sparano, Miami Dolphins: 21
Belichick, New England Patriots: 15
Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks: 6
Todd Haley, Kansas City Chiefs: 5
Jim Harbaugh, San Francisco 49ers: 5
Rex Ryan, New York Jets: 5
Jim Schwartz, Detroit Lions: 4
John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens: 2
Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals: 2
Mike Shanahan, Washington Redskins: 2
12 coaches received one vote
In previous polls released this week, we learned who's the most disliked player (Michael Vick), dirtiest player (Ndamukong Suh), and most overrated player (Tim Tebow).