KR I know you and your family are heavily involved in animal-welfare causes.

JT We got involved with a non-profit animal shelter in Westchester County [in New York] and we saw what the conditions were—conditions you would not believe. [Dogs] stuck in cages, feces everywhere, malnutrition, some had broken backs. We got the people who were running the non-profit to turn it over to a group of us as volunteers and we slowly started rehabilitating the dogs. There is a need for not just money, but time, love, care, vetting, everything.

KR You’re from Boston originally. Are you a Red Sox fan?

JT I am a New York Yankees fan and a New York Giants fan. How that happened I have no idea.

KR I heard you wore your baseball uniform under your high school graduation gown.

JT [Laughs.] We had just been eliminated from the playoffs. It was my last year. We got back and the graduation was going on and I did not wanna go. A number of coaches came into the locker room and said, “You have to go.” I went there kickin’ and screamin’. We had just lost a big game and that’s all I cared about at that point in time. [Laughs.]

KR So you were an emotional player.

JT Yeah, in all sports I think emotion is a big part of it. It’s part of my coaching style, also. I think it’s one of my biggest strengths and it’s probably one of my biggest weaknesses.

KR What makes it a weakness?

JT When you get wrapped up and you don’t think things out—obviously it’s been very well-chronicled as far as some of the situations that have gone on with the media. But—and I’m honest about this—it has also gone on in the locker rooms, where I think I’ve handled players wrong, and I have said maybe the right things to players but the wrong way, and through emotion. I’m still trying to get better at that.