Michael Conroy / AP

New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin watches drills as the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Mike Celizic thinks Coughlin has earned ever penny of his new $21 million contract.

Coughlin didn’t change his belief in a level of team discipline that still seems excessive. Players still had to be to team meetings early to be considered on time, and the dress code he instituted remained in place. Practices didn’t get any easier, nor his demands less excessive.

All he really did was decide that it was okay to joke and laugh with his players, and accept that maybe the players should be able to approach him about the way things were done. He didn’t adopt all their ideas, but he listened to them.

You didn’t hear any players complain last year, not even when the team started out 0-2 and looked awful in the process. Despite the disappointment of his previous seasons, the players continued to believe in him, and he believed in them.

The team made the playoffs as a wild card, won three road playoff games, and ended the season decently enough in Glendale on Feb. 3 with a stunning victory over the Patriots.

That would have been the time to gloat, or at least to ask his critics what they thought of him now.

And he didn’t do it. He gave the credit to his players, celebrated with them, and went back to work. A new contract was inevitable, but he didn’t say anything publicly about it, didn’t negotiate in the newspapers, didn’t demand to be the highest-paid coach in the game.

Even when word leaked out about the deal that’s waiting for his signature, he didn’t comment on it. He’d wait until it was done and the team held a press conference; he’d do it the right way, with class.

I was one of the many who wanted him gone. Seldom have I been more delighted to admit I was wrong. And while $21 million is a lot of money to draw X’s and O’s on a dry erase board, if anybody has earned it, Coughlin has.

He didn’t just show us how to win football games, he showed us how to act both in adversity and triumph. You want a role model in sports? You can do a lot worse than Tom Coughlin.

More news

NBC Sports

What's up with Alex and Cam?

  SportsTalk: 49ers quarterback Alex Smith rips on Panthers' second-year QB Cam Newton.

NBC Sports

Sanchez looking over his shoulder at Tebow?

  SportsTalk: Is Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez concerned about being benched for Tim Tebow? It's possible.

Headlines

• Label

PFT: Jeff Garcia still wants to play in the NFL

PFT: Ex-Dolphin testifies in bizarre murder case

PFT Live: Top picks bring QB competitions

PFT: Williams tape may hinder 'Hard Knocks'

PFT Live: Cardinals' DB Campbell is excited

PFT: Polamalu thinks kids should play football

PFT: Vanderjagt attacks kid for 'wide left' taunt?

PFT Live: Is Cowboys' title window closing?