Winning a Super Bowl can allow a NFL head coach a little bit of candor in his public statements.  Winning two super bowls allows a coach a ton.

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin took full advantage of that yesterday when he couldn’t resist taking a jab at the “cross-town” rival New York Jets and their recent player acquisitions (ie: Tebowmania in NYC). Here’s what Coughlin had to say about the Jets recent acquisitions:

“You know who won the Super Bowl, you know who the world champions are,” he said. “Whether we’re on the front page every day or not, it’s not that important. New Yorkers know.”

Ouch, little bit of a burn there or what? The best part about that statement is that it pretty much rings true. The Giants go about their business, generally not making too many crazy headlines (minus Brandon Jacobs i guess) and they just go and win two Super Bowls in five years. The loudest Giants in the media are ex-Giants Tiki Barber and Michael Strahan.

Meanwhile, over in Jets country, you’ve got Rex Ryan flapping his gums every other week, talking about winning Super Bowls like he is a fat and sober Joe Namith, showcasing the entire team on HBO’s Hard Knocks, making free agent signing splashes that, all combined together…gets them essentially nowhere. Nowhere, that is, if you consider your season to be a bust if a Super Bowl ring was not won.

Anyway, it is nice to see Coughlin finally give up a little of the “hard ass” persona in his interviews with the media. Generally this is a guy who can make Bill Belichick look like charming. Maybe he’s finally getting soft in his golden years?

If so, I am loving it.

Chan Gailey and Tom Coughlin were so stunned by their players lack of performances this week that they offered no excuses for their play. In fact, they pretty much threw them under the bus after the game. Here’s Coughlin first after his Giants dramatic loss to the Vince Young led Philadelphia Eagles :

“My question to them was, ‘Why?’ What did it take to understand what the Eagles were going to be like coming in here? You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that team is 3-6, back to the wall, they’re going to play their butts off. To get where we want to go, we’re going to have to play harder. And better. And we didn’t.”

I mean, isn’t part of being a good coach, at any level, finding ways to get through to your players so they can understand and execute the game plan?  To coach them in such a way that they maximize their talents? Seems to me that Coughlin is kinda passing the buck on this one a bit.  Sure his team played like crap and yes they do share in the blame, but they SHARE in the blame. Maybe Coughlin should’ve found some way to actually get through to his players, surely throwing them all under the bus is not it. For that matter, neither is admitting you couldn’t get your players to play like you want, you know, like a coach is supposed to do.

How about Chan Gailey, head coach of the Buffalo Bills whose once high flying team has lost 3 straight including yesterday’s horrocious 35-8 loss to Miami:

“I wish I could give you an explanation,” said coach Chan Gailey. “I cannot give you an explanation of how we played effectively early in the year and we’re not playing effectively now. We lost that one as a team. Every phases had problems, real problems.

“We’re  not very good right now,” Gailey said. “That’s the bottom line. We’re not. If I knew exactly what the problem was, I’d solve it. It’ s obviously not one thing. It’s things that mounted up on us, and we’re not able to execute the way we were earlier in the year and the way we’re capable of.”

Chan Gailey just admitted to the world he has no idea what is happening with his own team. He has no idea why the team is losing games and he cannot stop the losing because of it. That is your fearless leader Bills players. This man just admitted 1) his team is bad; and 2) he’s not sure why. That is confidence inspiring head coaching there people. His stationary should Chan Gailey, LEADER OF MEN.

Both Gailey and Coughlin should be fired at the end of the year just for statements like these. Their job is to lead and these are hardly the statements of leaders.