Giants’ Coach Coughlin Had Son In World Trade Center On 9/11

We all remember where we were ten years ago, the day the terrible tragedy known as 9/11 took place.  For the New York Giants head coach, Tom Coughlin, he was doing what he does best - coaching.  However, there was no NFL game taking place on that fateful Tuesday. Coughlin was coaching his son out of the World Trade Center. 

Tim Coughlin, a bond trader for Morgan Stanley at the time, was on the 60th floor of Two World Trade.  Initially, he thought the explosion on the first tower was a bomb.  He and many others around him headed straight for the stair case.  When Tim arrived at the 44th floor, a security guard stopped the group and told everyone that their building was secure.  While some of his colleagues ventured back up to the 60th floor, Tim knew he should leave the building.  Five minutes later, the second plane hit his building, about 23 floors above his head.

Tim took a call from his father, Tom, who was head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars at the time, as he was exiting the building. Quoted by Yahoo Sports' Michael Silver, Tim recalls: "You need to get out of there RIGHT NOW," his dad yelled. "Don't waste any time," continues his father. "Just drop everything and GO."  The elder Coughlin had been having his secretary dial Tim's cell phone over and over.  Forty five minutes had passed before the coach would learn anything about his son's whereabouts.  Tim, unimaginably grateful, says "It was really helpful to have my dad on the phone. To be able to talk with him, as it was all happening, it was the greatest sense of calm." as quoted again by Silver.

Coach Coughlin doesn't credit coaching for his son's bravery and safe trip out of the burning tower. Silver quotes Coughlin, "For Tim to be able to survive that," the coach says, "I just feel like the Holy Spirit took him by the hand in the second tower and guided him out of there."  The story is a great read.  I can't imagine what it would be like to be on either end of that phone call.  One thing I do know, coach Coughlin will have more than the game plan on his mind Sunday during the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as the Giants take on the Washington Redskins.