Former Jacksonville Jaguars coach and executive vice-president Tom Coughlin revealed in a guest column published in the New York Times on Tuesday that his wife Judy was diagnosed last year with progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder that affects the ability to walk, speak, think and control body movements.
The disorder is incurable. Coughlin, the Jaguars first coach from 1995-2002 who later won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, said in the column that symptoms began occurring four years ago and his wife's condition has slowly deteriorated.
"Our hearts are broken," Coughlin wrote in the column, which WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union filed a report on. "Judy has been everything to our family. For the past four years, we’ve helplessly watched her go from a gracious woman with a gift for conversation, hugging all the people she met and making them feel they were the most important person in the room, to losing almost all ability to speak and move."
An expanded version of this story is at Jacksonville.com.
