Coughlin on Phillips

Tom Coughlin had made his initial statements in the Giants announcement on the IRing of Kenny Phillips yesterday. But here he is talking to the press today.

Asked how Phillips is doing the day after the news, Coughlin said, "Well, he is very emotional about it. He expected to play and wanted to play. And he is playing well. And he is very upset that it wasn’t the direction that this was to go in. And he fully understood the management part of it. And obviously he could it, played well in the game with it.

"So he is very emotional about it. And as I said – and I have tried to be consistent with this – the first thing that I say is: our concern is about the player – the player’s health and his emotional well-being and all of those things. We want to be there for him – to support him. And I’m talking about our team, our players, and everyone. And then we want to have the circumstances corrected and want to put a smile back on his face and get him back out on the field playing the game that he loves to play."

Coughlin said he had believed the Giants medical staff could "manage" the knee condition, termed patello-femoral arthritis. But as the condition declined, the Giants had no choice but to end Phillips' season.

"No, it swelled and then he has to go back to doing all of the things that he does in the training room to get the swelling out of it and then they felt that on Sunday morning that – he was in great shape. He felt good. The swelling was down, he was ready to go."

But by Monday morning, things didn't look good.

"It’s not just Wednesday. It was the next morning and all of that business, too."

Coughlin, while noting that he's no doctor, was optimistic when asked if he thought Phillips could continue his career next season amid speculation that the condition could be considered career-threating.

"I am, yeah," Coughlin said. "First of all, what we have done is in the best interest of the player and the New York Giants because we feel like this young man has an outstanding future. Now you know that I don’t have a medical degree, right?"

EP