Tom Coughlin was fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars this week. Owner Shad Khan issued a statement that said he was planning on moving on from Coughlin at the end of the season, but due to a slew of stories about Coughlin’s behavior running the Jaguars, he decided to end the relationship ahead of schedule.

The stories about Coughlin are damning. The NFLPA won a decision this week against Coughlin, who tried to mandate that they receive all offseason medical treatment at the team facility, and then fined players when they did not. There were other fines, too, not to mention the whole thing of Coughlin destroying the Jaguars’ cap space and future prospects.

And then there was the story on Friday: After Coughlin’s departure, team officials went around the building and re-set all the clocks to the correct time, as Coughlin had set them all 5-15 minutes ahead of time to ensure players would show up on time.

Some old timey folks, I imagine, will think this is clever. It’s not.

This is moronic. Coughlin isn’t teaching responsibility by changing the clocks on the wall. He’s tricking people. He’s treating them like children. These are grown professionals who have shown the hard work and dedication to make it as pro athletes in the hardest and most competitive football league in the world, and he’s changing clocks on the walls to try and trick them into showing up on time for meetings.

This isn’t management. This is infantilization. Apparently Coughlin used to run this back in his Giants days, and I’ll say it: It was idiotic then and it’s idiotic now. I don’t care if he found success that way.

There’s a difference between running a tight ship and being draconian. Coughlin crossed the line so many times it’s sort of stunning no one said anything earlier.

And, with the Jaguars? He didn’t find success that way. They’re 5-11 this year, a wasted season for a team a lot of people thought were going to be competitive.

Good managers identify what people need to succeed and empower them to do great things. They also hold them accountable when needed.

Setting clocks back and forcing players to get medical treatment that you approve of isn’t holding people accountable. It’s saying they can be responsible for themselves in the first place. It’s treating them not as hard working professionals, but as children.

Coughlin should be done with football, and managing people in general.