Different cuts from same cloth

Bill Belichick might have written the book on dour, but Tom Coughlin had the market cornered on being square.

If one coach in the NFL looks like a “dark socks and sandals at the beach” type, it’s Coughlin.

He’s always been all business. Glasses. The thinning white hair swept to the side. Fast walker. That air of slight impatience as he rocks side-to-side in press conferences that are long on business, short on laughs.

The guy who long believed five minutes early is on time and four minutes early is actually late doesn’t have a cool, away-from-football alter ego like Belichick does tooling around Nantucket on his boat with Jon Bon Jovi in tow.

So it’s interesting to see the controlling Coughlin not just tolerating his players’ verbal brashness but – in some cases – jumping in himself.

While the Patriots are still name, rank and serial number for the most part under Belichick, the Giants make more guarantees than Bob’s Furniture.

And Coughlin has at times gotten a tad brash himself. Relatively speaking. After the Giants win over the 15-1 Packers at Lambeau Field last month, Coughlin said in the postgame, “I think we’re a dangerous team. I like where we are.”

This week, while Mario Manningham and Victor Cruz have taken turns disparaging Patriots wideout/DB Julian Edelman and Antrel Rolle has been doling out guarantees, Coughlin hasn’t told anyone to dummy up.

Has Coughlin changed?

“Probably, but I think it’s important as the process of learning,” Coughlin said. “You learn, develop, and change every year. You have to bring a fresh approach each year to your team, especially when you’ve been doing it a few years in the same place. If I’ve changed, it’s been an attempt to motivate and put us in the best possible chance that we can be.”

And Coughlin seems to believe that letting his team be itself and forge its own personality is the best way for it to motivate itself. It’s a supremely confident team, especially for a group that went 9-7 and had a four-game losing streak that had them on the verge of missing the playoffs.

But that confidence also allows it to forget about the bumps and then go into Lambeau or San Francisco and win.

Coughlin’s approach is a galaxy removed from the other head football coach in New York, Rex Ryan, who’s willingness to let whatever hits his brain exit his mouth was happily adopted by his players when he joined the team in 2009 and resulted in a 2011 implosion.

But Coughlin does let the players express themselves.

“Players have personalities and they are who they are,” Coughlin noted. “You want a certain amount of that on your football team, but you don’t want someone who puts themselves in a position to hurt your team.”

Coughlin has positive proof that allowing his players to be brash helps them. In 2007, they talked themselves into the notion the Patriots – 18-0 coming into that Super Bowl – were a dynasty that needed to be buried.

They showed up in Arizona dressed in black – a funeral for the dynasty was their reasoning. And they went out and backed up their brashness with one of the greatest upsets in NFL history.

Coughlin’s players say he really isn’t as bad as his reputation.

“My first season I questioned a lot of things that Coach Coughlin was doing,” said Rolle. “After taking a step back and reflecting on all of it, I understand exactly why he is the way he is. I used to always wonder, I felt like he was always trying to turn us into men. Does he not know that we are men before we ever step on the football field here as a Giant? I used to ask myself questions like that. Once I matured enough and I took a step back, he is not trying to turn us into men, he is trying to help us become better men.”

The buy-in from his team is apparent in the way they revere him. After the Giants beat the Patriots in November, they carried him off the field on their shoulders.

“When Coach Coughlin comes up, everybody wants to talk about how rough he is, how unforgiving he is, how the reigns are pulled back pretty tight on the football team, but playing for him is golden for me,” said defensive end Justin Tuck. “You know exactly what to expect from him, you know what he expects from you. It’s easy to go out and do your job when you don’t have to go out and worry about what we are doing here, what are we doing there. I love playing for the guy, and I hope I get to play the rest of my career for him.”