Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
Tom Coughlin was hired about three years ago to revive the ragtag Jacksonville Jaguars and immediately set all the clocks in the team’s headquarters ahead by five minutes. Even the Jaguars rookies had heard about the routine: Coughlin Time meant being at least five minutes early.
Coughlin, the team’s chief football executive, was famous for rules governing everything from the color of practice socks — usually white — to the acceptable comportment in team meetings: both feet on the floor.
A son of a World War II veteran and the eldest of seven children, Coughlin was raised to believe that meticulous attention to detail would add up to big accomplishments, and the record of his life’s work — two Super Bowl championships, a Hall of Fame résumé— appeared to confirm the value of that approach.