Fast Break

NFL

Champion Giants reward Coughlin

Tom Coughlin was rewarded for the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory, agreeing to a four-year, $21 million contract Friday that will make him one of the NFL’s highest-paid coaches.

Coughlin had been on the verge of being fired after the Giants went 8-8 in 2006 and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year.

He will earn about $5.25 million annually, according to a person with knowledge of the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because the contract was not signed. The person said the team will announce the deal today.

His new contract will be a $2 million increase over last season and what he was to have earned this year. Seattle’s Mike Holmgren is the NFL’s highest-paid coach at $8 million a year.

College athletics

Former EWU A.D. lands at Utah St.

Utah State has a new athletics director.

Scott Barnes comes from the University of Washington, where he was a senior associate athletics director. He succeeds Randy Spetman, who left in February to become the A.D. at Florida State.

Barnes was also athletics director at Eastern Washington from 1999 to 2005. Four of the six coaches he hired there have won conference coach of the year honors. He also led successful fundraising drives for a recreation center and a stadium renovation.

Barnes starts his new job in about three weeks.

NFL

Seahawks lose Darby to Lions

Defensive tackle Chuck Darby signed a 3-year contract with the Detroit Lions, who are looking to offset the loss of Shaun Rogers.

Darby, 6-foot and 297 pounds, is a seven-year veteran who spent the past three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. A knee injury limited him to six games last season.