Patriots vs. Giants: Could Tom Coughlin Destroy Bill Belichick's Legacy?

You have to figure right about now that Bill Parcells is smiling like a proud daddy. His two greatest success stories in coaching are meeting head to head again in their quest for another Super Bowl title.

With all the headlines this week about the Mannings, Tom Brady and his quest for postseason immortality and a Giants team that looks more and more like the Green Bay Packers of last season, both Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick are just as much a center stage story as everything else associated with Super Bowl week.

Two coaches who built their teams on different premises and still have climbed the Rushmore of obstacles to get back to the one game that matters most. And right now, the man who has fewer titles and until a few weeks ago seemed to be on his way out of New York now seems to be winning the war of success.

And if Coughlin, the 66-year-old stone face who always seems to be yelling or angry with something or another, wins a second Lombardi against arguably the best coach in the NFL over the last decade (sorry Mike Tomlin), what does that say for his legacy and that of one of his closest rivals?

Coughlin is out to prove he is just as good, if not better than the hoodie-wearing, stoic task master. And in the process, give the media more fodder to decide whether or not the Giants head coach is worthy of a call from Canton.

You cannot ask for a better subplot than this.

When Belichick started his run of playoff and Super Bowl titles in Beantown, it looked as if a dynasty would live in much the same capacity as the, and I know Boston fans will shudder, Yankees in terms of dominance. Even a perfect record became part of the signature run.

Coughlin did his part to ruin that. And with that came a first world championship that helped define the former Boston College and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach. But still, even with a world title and a media market that loves him one day and wants to kick him out of the state the next, he is still looking for definition.

A win for Coughlin tonight would prove a lot about him—the tenacity to continue through adversity, the ability to win big games in big-game situations, and the bend, but don't break attitude he and his team have had since the final game of the regular season. It all adds up to success.

And while Belichick and his staff and players have experienced success over the past decade, they have exerted their will on other teams at times to the point of suffocation. The Giants are an old-school gem that fights and claws and scratches its way forward and proves the lovable underdog is still alive and well.

Can Coughlin's win hurt Belichick's legacy? Sure it can. But being of the fighting mentality that Coughlin is, challenging that legacy while building his own is more his style and more the style of the team he wants to see raising another Lombardi.