National Football League

Coughlin humbled by US Army honor

Published May. 23, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Tom Coughlin's year to remember got even more memorable Wednesday night when the Giants' admittedly star-struck coach was honored for his dedication to the US Army in Fort Myer, Va.

Although still reveling in his second Super Bowl crown in five years, Coughlin was both humbled and, at times, speechless as US Army chief of staff Raymond T. Odierno, a noted Big Blue fan from Dover, N.J., toasted him and four others near Arlington National Cemetery for their volunteer work with the military.

Coughlin was not the only NFL head coach honored during a theatrical annual fort ceremony called Twilight Tattoo — the Ravens' John Harbaugh also was on hand to be recognized — but the usually gruff Giants boss acknowledged he was almost moved to tears by his Outstanding Civilian Service Award.

"When the general was standing there reading off that stuff about me, it was almost like I was saying to myself, 'Who's he talking about?''' Coughlin told the New York Post after the hour-long celebration overlooking the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.

"It was unbelievable to me," continued Coughlin, who was accompanied to the event by wife Judy. "The patriotism just came pouring out of me with all of the pomp and circumstance and standing there next to a four-star general. That's what you call humbling."

The US Army honored Coughlin for allowing soldiers and the families to attend practices and games, for repeatedly visiting wounded soldiers at both Walter Reed Medical Center and other installations, and for flying to Iraq in 2009 as part of a United Service Organizations (USO) tour.

Odierno noted the awkwardness of honoring the coach of the Giants in the backyard of the NFC East rival Redskins, but Coughlin received nothing but loud applause and picture requests from a large crowd made up mostly of civilians and schoolchildren bused in from Ohio, North Carolina and elsewhere.

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