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It was internal strife and behind-the-scenes sniping that drove coach Tom Coughlin to institute the Leadership Council on the Super Bowl XLII Giants.
The difference between the 2011 Giants and 2011 Jets to date is this: the Giants have stayed strong in the face of adversity, while the Jets have buckled.
The character of the players in the locker room always matters.
But ultimately, it starts at the top.
The Post has learned that Coughlin, who disbanded his Leadership Council last season, brought it back for this season.
“We’re back in business,” Coughlin told The Post after practice yesterday.
Derrick Mason’s jettisoning to Houston tells us that Rex Ryan is hardly immune to growing pains in his third season as head coach and would be well-served to go to school on how Coughlin has adapted over the years and learned how to navigate the rocky NFL seas and weather its storms.
And how he keeps The Big Blue Ship afloat.
Coughlin, asked why he formed the Leadership Council, said: “Communication. It’s just making sure that everybody is on the same page. When I leave a meeting, the players can decipher the information and share it among themselves so there’s not two or three different opinions.
“Plus, there’s a sincerity issue here, where they know that I’m coming to them with things that I think are important, information they need to know. Because what happens a lot of times is you get so busy, then you start contemplating, ‘Well when will I tell them this, when will I not tell them this?’ This gives you a chance to get this information out.”
The Leadership Council originally was composed of a dozen Giants. Now it’s nine. The Post has learned that it is made up of the three captains — Eli Manning, Justin Tuck and Zak DeOssie — and the leading vote getters in the balloting for captains — Lawrence Tynes, Chris Snee, David Diehl, Corey Webster, Aaron Ross and Dave Tollefson.
Coughlin considers it vital nowadays to have this kind of liaison with his team.
“The information cycle is so much out there that, in the old days, nobody cared what the players knew . . . the players just did what they were told to do,” Coughlin said. “This day and age they do what they’re told to do, but they like to have the benefit of shared information.”
Tuck: “I think it’s important because it helps the captains have other guys to kind of bounce things off of. I’m able to go to the other guys on the Leadership Council and ask them about things instead of just being . . . me and Eli. Or me, Eli and Zak. It gives a few more voices. Obviously, it’s three of us have Cs on our chest, but for me personally, I think it’s somewhat of a relief to have guys that are looked upon as alternate captains, I guess.”
Tollefson: “I think it’s just another way for us to get a pulse from him, and him to get a pulse from the team too. Anytime you want to know what’s going on you need to get a group of guys together that can kind of relay as far as he lets us know what he’s thinking, and we can kinda talk to the guys.
“Tom does a really good job of not stepping on anybody’s toes, too. What people think of him as far as a control freak — he wants things to be under control. But then again, he lets individuals be individuals . . . in this locker room really. You don’t ever see Tom in here telling us how to run our locker room, which is huge.”
Harry Carson, Bill Parcells’ trusted co-lieutenant along with George Martin: “I was impressed that Tom even went down that road, because Tom was about doing it My Way Or The Highway. It showed his willingness to be flexible to listen to guys and take on a different mindset.”
Coughlin: “What Bill used to do is — ‘Harry, that guy over there needs to get with it.’ So it would be a player-to-player thing, a little bit more than the kind of stuff that you’re talking about with what I’ve done,” Coughlin said. “Although I will do that, but that’s just a ‘This guy needs to be talked to, that guy needs to be talked to,’ and we have some people around here that can do that as well.”
Manning sees the Leadership Council as beneficial for solving smaller issues such as the schedule on any given day.
“I don’t know if it makes a whole lot of difference,” he said.
He’s in the minority. It makes a Giant difference.
steve.serby@nypost.com