Pat Shurmur’s introductory news conference Friday sounded nothing like the one the Giants threw for Tom Coughlin on Jan. 6, 2004.
Don’t be fooled. The main message of zero tolerance for slackers and malcontents remained the same. And that’s just what the Giants need right now, just as they needed it back then, days after Jim Fassel’s last team finished 4-12.
Coughlin spewed fire and brimstone that day. In a speech reminiscent of something General George Patton might have showered on his troops, Coughlin promised a return to Giants pride and, rather unrealistically, a cure for the “cancer” of injuries that kept Fassel’s training room going 24 hours in that final 2003 season.