When Tom Coughlin arrived to the Giants after the 2003 season, he barely acknowledged Kerry Collins when the two passed each other in the hallway of the Giants’ facility that offseason. There was no eye contact between head coach and quarterback for a simple reason: Coughlin sensed Collins was not going to be his quarterback and had no interest in building a relationship.
Sure enough, the Giants worked a draft-day trade with the Chargers to acquire Eli Manning, and a few days later, Collins was summoned into the office of general manager Ernie Accorsi. It was Accorsi who, five years earlier, harkened back to his Penn State roots and salvaged Collins from the scrap heap.