Top 100 Irish America's Finest In Sport "What we talk about is great effort outstanding preparat

Top 100 Irish America's Finest In Sport

"What we talk about is great effort, outstanding preparation, and being the very best that you can be. If you are as good as you can possibly be, the rest of that stuff will take care of itself."

Tom Coughlin, New York Giants coach.

In the following pages we salute all those sporting heroes who are "the best they can be."

Tom Brady

Though the 2007 Patriots will be remembered for the perfect team that wasn't, their quarterback still had an incredible season. Not only did Tom Brady win NFL MVP, but the three-time Super Bowl champion threw 50 touchdown passes in an unbeaten 16-0 regular season. In fact his numbers were so ridiculously high all season that it seemed a glorious coronation was inevitable. However, Tom Coughlin, the man on the opposite side of this page, and his team of Giants did not read the script and put an end to such perfect ambitions.

Brady, though, put a brave face on the loss immediately after the Super Bowl, saying, "We had a great year. It's just unfortunate that tonight turned out the way it did."

Though this defeat will take some time to recover from, Brady (whose family traces its Irish roots to counties Cork and Cavan) is only 30, so it is surely only a matter of when, rather than if, he gets his fourth ring.

In the meantime, Brady's popularity has transcended his sport and now he is beginning to rival the likes of David Beckham and Tiger Woods as global sporting icons. The New England Patriots quarterback is now as popular for his actions off the field as he is on the gridiron.

Tom Coughlin

At the end of the 2006 season, Tom Coughlin was being run out of New York by media and fans alike. Twelve months later and the man can almost walk on water. That's what a Super Bowl win will do for a coach, but it was his own transformation as well as how he changed the mindset of his team that was most impressive.

Defensive linchpin Michael Strahan said it best when he remarked, "From more rules and less suggestions to more suggestions and less rules." Once Coughlin relented a little on the rigid discipline that is his trademark, the Giants responded by warming to the man and buying into his plan. Team that up with a quarterback who discovered himself, add a mean defense, and the man born in Waterloo, New York, was the rock upon which the Patriots floundered.

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Nster.com