JACKSONVILLE – The emotions were real, raw and at the surface.
This was Sunday at EverBank Stadium, and Tom Coughlin was speaking to the media moments after being inducted into the Pride of the Jaguars. It was a fitting honor.
It was also one that mattered the former head coach. A lot.
"I'm humbled," he said. "I'm very proud."
Coughlin, who as head coach quickly built the Jaguars from a 1995 expansion team into a perennial playoff team, became the seventh Pride of the Jaguars member. The others: Left tackle Tony Boselli, running back Fred Taylor, wide receiver Jimmy Smith, quarterback Mark Brunell and Owners Wayne and Delores Weaver.
Coughlin spoke to former Jaguars players Saturday night and said he told them, "It's because of them that I'm here, that I have this great honor bestowed."
"For me, it's never about the individual," he said. "It's always about the team. I regret the fact that I could never just stand there – for lack of time –and read the first staff off and the staff supporters and so on and so forth. I would have loved to have been able to say the names and let them hear and hopefully they understand that I am saying thank you because what we had in the very beginning was very unique.
"We did things together, and we were unified. When we won, we all won. When we lost, we all lost. It was a heck of a feeling to get started like that."
Coughlin on Sunday spoke extensively of the 1995 expansion team that built the foundation of a team that won two AFC Central titles – 1998 and 1999 and that made the postseason from 1996-1999 with AFC Championship Game appearances following the 1996 and 1999 seasons.
"We lost one game by a lot, but we were in every other game that year," he said. "Our players that year came together. They weren't real happy with me. They were unified. They didn't like me, but it's very gratifying to me to hear these guys come up to me this day and age and tell me they love me. It's quite a feeling."
Coughlin added, "It was the result of a lot of hard work. There are a lot of great memories. You don't win them all for sure. But boy, we had a lot of fun in those first five years. We won, and we were excited to win, and winning helped.
"It's very rewarding. It's very satisfying. I'm excited about it. I don't like things just pointed at me. I've always been a team guy. I like to spread that around. Unfortunately, time will not allow that. But everybody that was here in those first nine years knows how they've contributed."
If you didn't catch Tom Coughlin's Induction LIVE, watch the full half time event below.
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