Mark Curnutte

George Seifert won a Super Bowl with San Francisco and went 16-32 in Carolina. Tom Flores won two Super Bowls in Oakland and went 14-34 in Seattle.

NO PRESSURE: Coughlin had has been a favorite of Giants co-owner Wellington Mara since he was the team's wide receivers coach from 1988-90.

Asked if there are coaches Coughlin reminds him of, Mara said: "I don't want to start typing people, but off the record, there's a lot of Vince Lombardi in him. And (Bill) Parcells."

"Off the record?" reporters asked.

"It's OK," Mara said. "You can use that."

CIRCLE OF LIFE: Arthur Blank has known Joe Gibbs since Blank was CEO at The Home Depot and sponsored Gibbs' racing team.

After Blank bought the Falcons, Gibbs became a minority owner and had a 1.67 percent stake in the team. Blank said this past week that Gibbs was talking about coming back as early as the firing of Dan Reeves, which was Dec. 10. Blank was interested. Blank and Falcons general manager Rich McKay met with Gibbs for eight hours last week and sensed his heart was into coaching in Washington, not Atlanta. Neither Blank nor McKay pushed. Why?

"It was pretty clear to me that once the opportunity in Washington came available," Blank said, "it was kind of like in the movie the Lion King, when Simba goes back home and saves the land."

DELIRIOUS IN D.C.: Here's why Redskins fans are happy with Gibbs' return: Five Redskins coaches since Gibbs were 74-101-1 with one playoff appearance in 11 seasons. Gibbs had only one losing season, 7-9 in 1988.

HOMIES: Entering this weekend, home teams were 41-9 in the second round of the NFC playoffs since 1978, with the average score 28-14. The record is 24-2 since 1990.

WIRE TO (ALMOST) WIRE: The Vikings led the NFC North from early in the first quarter of the first-game victory at Green Bay until the last play of the last game at Arizona.

DURABILITY: Eddie George and Jim Brown are the only runners in history to reach 10,000 yards without missing a start. George set an NFL record with 128 consecutive starts since coming into the league in 1996.

SHOW-ME STATE: The Rams average 33.6 points at home in the regular season. The low was 27, to the Bengals.

At the other end of the state, the Chiefs have won a franchise-record 13 straight at Arrowhead Stadium. Only St. Louis, at 14, had a longer home-field win streak.

The Chiefs are the first AFC team to lead the NFL in scoring in consecutive seasons since the 1981-82 Chargers. Coach Dick Vermeil enters the playoffs on a three-game winning streak in the postseason, winning all three of them with St. Louis in 1999, capped by the Super Bowl. And the Chiefs' playoff game today against the Colts will come 34 years to the date of the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory over Minnesota, 23-7 in New Orleans.

GREETING CARD: Eagles safety Brian Dawkins on the way Brett Favre has played since the death of his father: "There's not a lot of guys who could do that. Our heart goes out to him. But (today), we're going to try to put him on his back."

AFC NORTH: At the urging of owner Randy Lerner, the Browns will try to keep Tim Couch as quarterback. But for Couch to stay, he has to accept a huge pay cut from the $7.6 million and $8 million base salaries left on his original seven-year deal. Couch repeatedly has said he is willing to "restructure" if it will insure his starting job in Cleveland. ... Steelers coach Bill Cowher is seeking candidates to replace fired defensive coordinator Tim Lewis. Among them is former Bengals coach Dick LeBeau, who spent the 2003 season as Buffalo's assistant coach. LeBeau worked for Cowher from 1992-96, leaving his post as Steelers coordinator for the same job with the Bengals under Bruce Coslet.

---

Written from notes submitted by NFL beat writers.

Return to Bengals front page...