NFL

Perry good choice to restore pride to Giants

If you listen to the men who played for him, and the man who coached him back at South Point High in Belmont, N.C, then there is no doubt that Perry Fewell is the right man at the right time to restore the pride to the Giants defense and to save Tom Coughlin.

“He was a fierce competitor,” Jim Biggerstaff said yesterday over the telephone. “He made them walk the line. He made them do what they were supposed to do, and his teammates looked up to him. Whatever Perry said, they did.”

The Giants were bankrupt in leadership on the defensive side of the ball last season, starting at the top. Coughlin gambled and lost when he tapped rookie defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan to replace Steve Spagnuolo. Just because you know your X’s and O’s doesn’t mean you can get men to follow you.

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Fewell, a fullback and middle linebacker, was captain of Biggerstaff’s 14-0 1979 state championship team, and served on the student government.

“He was raised [in Cramerton] by his grandparents,” Biggerstaff said, “and they did a great job of raising him.”

If you are defensive coordinator of the New York football Giants, and your way is low-key and analytical, then you better be Tom Landry or Bill Belichick. Most recently, the successful defensive coordinators here have been John Fox and Spagnuolo, emotional sparkplugs who bonded with their players. If Sheridan was Ice, Fewell is Fire. Sometimes F-bomb Fire.

“The people that will play for Perry,” Biggerstaff said, “will love playing for him.”

Biggerstaff, who coached South Point H.S. from 1969-90, will be 75 years old in July. He speaks once a week with Fewell.

“He will treat them very respectful,” Biggerstaff said, “but occasionally, he will get in their face.”

When he replaced Dick Jauron as interim head coach of the Bills, here is what Fewell said after a 53-yard TD bomb to Lee Evans was nullified by an illegal hands to the face penalty against Jonathan Scott: “That’s a killer. I don’t know if I can chop any fingers off, but I’m going to chew some ears off.”

I asked Bills defensive end Chris Kelsay yesterday what Fewell will not tolerate, and he said: “Selfishness. You never see Perry put one person ahead of the team. If you’re too worried about yourself, he’s gonna pull you out of the game.”

Pro Football Weekly ranked Fewell 13th among defensive coordinators in a recent poll. Sheridan was 30th. Fewell is considered a teacher who is both fair and tough.

“He’s not afraid to show negative plays . . . guys loafing,” Kelsay said. “Everything’s done in front of the team as a whole. Nothing’s said behind your back. Everything is clear cut, which I think is a good way to run a defense.”

Fewell’s motivational ploys have included clips of the movie “300” — King Leonidas and 300 Spartans versus the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. — and Al Pacino addressing his team in “Any Given Sunday,” incorporated into a highlight video of the previous week’s outstanding plays. He has also interspersed clips of the brutal Arturo Gatti-Mickey Ward trilogy and the Ali-Frazier documentary. “Those are more in training camp to show the toughness side of football and how never to say never,” Kelsay said.

Fewell will joke around, but is all business when it is time to go to work.

“I know one thing that really upsets him is mental mistakes,” Kelsay said. “Something Perry takes a lot of pride in is doing the little things better than your opponent.”

Fewell, before taking over for Jauron, preferred the controlled setting of the press box to coordinate his defense, but the Giants crave a firebrand on the sidelines, so expect Coughlin to convince him to stay inside the arena.

“He’s a guy who gets his players jacked up,” Kelsay said. “It’s an emotional game, it’s a 60-minute game. . . . He tries to keep his players up.”

How will the Giant players like playing for him?

“I had a great time playing for him,” Kelsay said. “I like the way he conducts himself. I would think the Giant players, especially the veterans, will really appreciate what he brings to the table. He’s gonna coach them. He’s gonna push them hard. He kinda stays the course. He’s the same guy at the beginning of training camp and the last week of the season.”

steve.serby@nypost.com