Super Bowl coaches are stars this week

We talk all the time about how you can't get to the Super Bowl without a great passer, and Super Bowl XLVI is a shining example of that. But as the AFC champion New England Patriots and NFC champion New York Giants arrive in Indianapolis, this is one of those rare times when Brady and Manning should share top billing for Super Bowl week with their very successful bosses.

Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin are going to be the co-stars in Indy, and they ought to be. The head coaches are not quite as glitzy as their big-time quarterbacks, but they deserve to share the Super Bowl week stage mainly because victory will secure their places in some rather significant roles in NFL history.

I just can't figure out which one will make the bigger leap with a win on Sunday.

What's the bigger deal or the tougher act, to earn a place on the NFL's coaching Mount Rushmore (Belichick) or to earn the hearts and minds of the toughest fans in America (Coughlin in the Big Apple)?

If Belichick wins a fourth Super Bowl title, it will be his fourth championship in five tries, which ought to elevate him onto that narrow cliff where the absolute NFL coaching legends reside. Some would say he is already up there (I would be one of those who say that). But just for argument's sake, if Belichick wins a fourth Super Bowl, that should put him without question on the same level with the three greatest coaches in NFL history, Green Bay's Vince Lombardi (two for two in Super Bowls, five pre-Super Bowl NFL titles), Pittsburgh's Chuck Noll (four appearances, four victories) and San Francisco's Bill Walsh (three for three in his Super Bowl appearances).

(I would say only one other coach belongs in that conversation with Belichick and the Big Three, and that would be former Washington coach and Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, who reached four Super Bowls and won three titles with three different quarterbacks_Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien. Who does that?)

I know a lot of folks regard Belichick as Darth Patriot, particularly folks around here because of Spygate. But if we were to get a little cranky about coaches who had a little larceny in their hearts, the Hall of Fame would be a few busts short (see: Al Davis, George Allen ... heck, see almost all of them).

The fact is, Belichick is one of the four best coaches to ever work an NFL sideline. He is the grand architect of the only real dynasty of the modern free agent era in pro football, and four Super Bowl titles would seal the deal for his legacy as one of the best of the best.

But Belichick's legacy is easy stuff. Nothing terribly complicated about what another victory Sunday would mean to him. Let's deal with something far more complicated and equally fascinating, like what another Super Bowl victory would mean to Coughlin.

In New York, Coughlin is not even the most famous coach in town right now. The Jets' Rex Ryan is the guy with all the TV commercials and Q rating that is off the charts. And when it comes to the most beloved Giants coach, that would be Bill Parcells, who led the Big Blue to two world titles in the 1990s. Parcells is a football holy man in New York because he delivered the Giants' first Super Bowl title, then gave them another one four years later. Yet Coughlin's coaching record in New York is as impressive as Parcells'. Parcells' regular-season record with the Giants was 77-49-1 (.611 winning percentage). Coughlin's regular-season record is 74-54 (.578). Parcells' postseason record was 8-3 (.727). Parcells won three NFC East titles in eight seasons. Coughlin also has won three NFC East titles in eight seasons and has a 7-3 (.700) postseason record.

But for some reason, even though his credentials match up almost identically to Parcells', New York seems to always want to fire Coughlin. A few months ago, the New York media and fans were ready to bum rush him out of town. The Giants were 7-7 and struggling. But Coughlin never panicked and the Giants went on a five-game winning streak, knocking off the NFC's No. 1 and No. 2 seeds on the way to the Super Bowl.

Now they are like Butler in the Super Bowl tournament, and Coughlin's boys are primed to upset the Patriots again.

Here's another thing people tend to forget: If it wasn't for Plaxico Burress, Coughlin might be going for Super Bowl victory No. 3, because the Giants were 11-1 in 2008 and defending Super Bowl champs when Burress shot himself in the leg in a New York nightclub and derailed the Giants' season.

So now he gets another shot at reminding the good folks in New York just how good he is. Another Super Bowl victory pulls him dead even with Parcells and could very well make him prince of the Big Apple, which in my mind is a much tougher act to master than climbing up Mount Rushmore.

But since I spent nine years in New York, I also know that unless Coughlin decides to go out on top and retire if he wins Sunday, being the toast of the town will always have a rather short expiration date.

He's not loud enough. He's not brash enough. He's not colorful enough. And that means they might love him, but that love will last as long as a New York minute.