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INDIANAPOLIS
The deep lines crease their faces like pass patterns these days. They have seen some things, and they have won some games.
They are the war horses of their sport, and they have smiled at success, and they have endured failure, and they have snarled and glared across all of the years and all of the fields.
Now they face each other all over again.
Bill and Tom.
Tom and Bill.
And what do you have this time?
It is funny the way people keep asking Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Giants coach Tom Coughlin how they have been softened by the years. They have mellowed, supposedly. They have softened. Why, they have turned into Grumpy Old Men, with Belichick filling the Walter Matthau role and Coughlin playing Jack Lemmon.
Don't believe it. When he accents his monotone litany of cliches, Belichick's grin may look slightly less like a shark's, and Coughlin claims he has learned patience to go along with the way his blood boils on the sideline. But let a call go the wrong way, and once again the fires will rage. It was that way back in 1990. It will be that way Sunday, too.
Twenty-one seasons ago, Belichick and Coughlin were on the same Giants coaching staff as the team won Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. Both were intense, both were driven, both were relentless. In those days, Belichick was the stoic defensive coordinator for coach Bill Parcells. Coughlin was the fiery receivers coach.
There is no word on which of the two was known as "the fun one."
"Tom was very disciplined and detail-oriented," Belichick said. "He was fair but firm. He was very demanding. There is a little of Bill Parcells in that, too. He can shoot the needle in there a little bit and get a little dig in. He expects a lot. He has high expectations."
"There was a certain amount of competitiveness about the interaction of the positions," Coughlin said. "We helped each other, and we would act as each other's scout squad. We worked well together, and I think it was a good thing for our staff. Both sides benefited from it."
All these years later, and they are about to go at each other again. Coughlin is 65 now, and Belichick is about to turn 60, and it is easy to wonder how much longer either will coach.
On the other hand, they have Sunday. For now, that's enough.
Depending on the Super Bowl's outcome, you could argue this has been the finest coaching season for either of them. Both adapted and adjusted and tinkered and found a way. Neither Belichick nor Coughlin is known for blinking, but this wasn't an easy journey for either.
Belichick finally got back to a Super Bowl despite having one his lowest-rated defenses. Much of that is probably because of the constant turnover the Patriots roster has had over the years.
There are only eight players left from the 2008 Super Bowl. Belichick has picked up that guy and drafted this one, and somehow, it has been enough to get here. This hasn't been a perfect season, like the one the Patriots nearly pulled off in 2007, and it hasn't been an imperfect one, like the ones from the Spygate years. But it has been enough.
Coughlin? A few weeks ago, a lot of Giants were looking at their watches and wondering if it was time for him to call it a career. The Giants were 7-7, and no one seemed very happy. Since then, the Giants have won five straight single-elimination games, and suddenly, Coughlin was smart all over again.
Both Coughlin and Belichick have learned that over the years. Keep pushing, keep playing, and things can turn around. Remember when Belichick was a failure in Cleveland? Remember when Coughlin was fired by Jacksonville?
It was early in Belichick's second season, when he had lost 14 of 20 games, that friends were telling Patriots owner Robert Kraft that he needed to change coaches.
"I know what's right for me," Kraft said, "and he was right for me."
Belichick still drones on during news conferences, and he has a way of not quite answering the question that has been asked. But he wins. And he does seem a little more loose than the old days. That is, unless he is asked about Spygate.
Coughlin? He's livelier than Belichick, and he's more prone to self-examination. But let's don't go too far with his growth.
"Warmer? Fuzzier?" said Chris Snee, a Giants guard and Coughlin's son-in-law. "I don't know if I'd use those adjectives. He has lightened up. Players are getting to know the softer side of him. But he still has his beliefs."
Bill and Tom. Tom and Bill. Fun guys.
Sunday night, one of them is likely to glare and snarl and snap.
And that's the winner.
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