IN THE SACK: To win this weekend’s battle by the Bay, Osi Umenyiora (72), Mathias Kiwanuka (94) and the Giants will need to keep the heat on Alex Smith and the 49ers. (AP)
The “No Toughness, No Championship!” signs have followed the Giants from their old Giants Stadium headquarters to the Timex Performance Center.
They might want to start plastering a new sign as we close in on Sunday’s NFC Championship in San Francisco against the 49ers, which likely is to be remembered more as the Blood Bowl than the Mud Bowl.
“No Blood, No Championship!”
“This is going to be a bloodbath,” defensive tackle Chris Canty said.
The word from the West Coast, however, is that these 49ers would welcome a Blood Bowl.
“If that’s the kind of game this is gonna turn out to be,” Hall of Fame 49er Ronnie Lott told the Post last night by cell phone, “it means it probably bodes well for the 49ers because they’ve been in those kind of battles all year long.
“I think they would say, ‘Hey, bring it on! You’re talking our language.’ I don’t think they will shy away from something like that.”
Tom Coughlin’s Giants are prepared to bleed every ounce of Giants blue as is necessarily to reach the Super Bowl.
“Most championship teams got to fight through some kind of adversity — whether that’s injuries, whether that’s not playing your best early in the year,” Justin Tuck said. “Toughness is just fighting through those things. Along the course of a season like this, you’re going to have things did not go your way, and it’s going to challenge you mentally, physically. It’s going to challenge your togetherness as a football team. But all of that has to be … I guess, strong, to be a champion.”
How tough is your team?
“We’ll find out,” Tuck said. “I think we’re pretty tough though. But we’re going into the hostile environment of a team that’s pretty tough too, so we’ll see. … We’ll see exactly how tough we are this week.”
Because this one is Phil Simms and Lott facemask to facemask.
It is the San Francisco branch of Hell’s Angels confronting The Gangs of New York at the 50-yard line.
It is a throwback game they could play in the parking lot with leather helmets.
It is every Giant playing every play the way Mark Bavaro played every play.
“It’s going to be a slugfest,” Bavaro said.
It is every 49er playing every play the way Lott played every play.
“I think one of the most physical games I’ve been a part of was the game where we played the Giants in that 7-3 Monday Night game,” Lott said. “I’m expecting this game to kinda be at the same level.
“I hope this game brings out all the things I used to watch when I watched LT and Carl Banks and Harry Carson and George Martin and that group of players. It was a physical, menacing game, so that’s what I’m hoping this is. I’m hoping it has all the elements that used to come out when we played them.”
Asked by phone what he thinks of “No Toughness, No Championship!” Bavaro said, “I like it. I think it kind of epitomizes the team they have this year. It’s one of the toughest Giant teams I’ve seen in a while.”
All In becomes Maul In for this one, a test of indomitable wills where only the strong will survive.
“The Giants can do it,” Bavaro said. “I think they’re the bad boys of the NFL. They’re tough, and people are afraid of them. People don’t like playing the Giants. They hit hard, and that’s a factor.”
As Coughlin left the podium yesterday, he walked past one of those “No Toughness, No Championship!” signs. I asked how often he refers to “No Toughness, No Championship!” to his team.
“Probably every week,” Coughlin said. “At least once a week.”
Asked about the origin of “No Toughness, No Championship!” Coughlin said, “It must have been ’07. It was a prepared and planned theme that we were going to use for that particular season.”
I asked Jason Pierre-Paul if any team is tougher than his team.
“God is tougher than us,” JPP said.
This isn’t Joe Montana throwing to Jerry Rice. It is Alex Smith handing off to Frank Gore. Big Blue will counter with a game plan you could call Shock ‘n’ Gore.
“That’s what you play for as a defensive lineman, those kind of nasty, in-the-trenches kind of deal,” defensive end Dave Tollefson said. “I’m excited, man. I can’t wait.”
Tollefson said he isn’t worried about the size of the 49ers offensive line.
“Yeah, they’re big … but we got muscles,” Tollefson said. “I lift weights every once in a while. I’m not no Hercules or nothing, but I do all right for myself.”
No Toughness, No Championship!
No Blood, No Championship!
“You got to be a tough-ass dude to win in January and February in the NFL,” Tollefson said, “and if you aren’t, you’re probably going to be home and be watching games.
“And I think it’s really exemplified in this matchup. You got the 49ers, who are widely considered probably the toughest team in the NFL right now, and we got to go play them.
“They got to play us too. They ain’t getting no cream puffs, and neither are we.”
Sunday, bloody Sunday.
steve.serby@nypost.com