Where Does New York Giants' Super Bowl Return Put Tom Coughlin in NFL History?

If you were writing a book on Tom Coughlin and you started talking about his career as an NFL head coach, there would be two very large chapters.

The first would talk about a military-like atmosphere in Jacksonville as the first head coach of the upstart Jaguars. In those eight seasons, Coughlin, the former head coach at Boston College and former assistant head coach on Bill Parcells' staff, had control of everything that the team did, success and failure alike.

Coughlin's rules were hard to live by, and while there were two AFC Championships and many Pro-Bowl players to come and go in his first tenure, his time as both head coach and general manager helped lead to financial hell and salary-cap slavery. But Coughlin never had anyone to tell him "no" when it came to bringing players in when he saw fit. Team owner (former owner) Wayne Weaver allowed Coughlin the freedom to pick and choose as he saw fit.

When everything went south and the team could not recover from its salary cap issues and lack of talent, the need for change was evident when Weaver finally pulled the plug on Coughlin's tenure in Jacksonville.

When Coughlin was handed the keys to the Giants team, he was given the chance to "coach" and oversee the team. That meant allowing the management to manage, allowing his offensive and defensive coordinators to design game plans and make necessary changes for game time.

The end result has been success, more so than he could have ever seen in the AFC South and more so with the talent-rich team the Giants are. And now, after being in the spotlight four seasons ago and already owning a Super Bowl ring, Coughlin is on the brink of another championship against a team many have considered the juggernaut in the AFC for the past decade.

If Coughlin wins a second title in four years, does he deserve Hall of Fame consideration?

In an age of coaching where Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Bill Belichick stand out as multiple Super Bowl winners and coaches like Mike McCarthy of Green Bay and Sean Payton of New Orleans are looking to take that next step forward, the elder statesman of New York may have a claim to being in the atmosphere of a Landry, or Shula or even a Bill Walsh.

Coughlin played in Super Bowls where his team was clearly not the best team in the NFC. But this year, Coughlin, Eli Manning and the rest of his team are the Green Bay Packers of last season. And an article written on nytimes.com discusses it in detail.

If Coughlin wins next week, it also may place him in the same air with his mentor, Parcells. But if it means he is as qualified like a Lombardi, Shula or Halas, that is something the media and Hall of Fame voters will have to decide.