INDIANAPOLIS — Before Tom Coughlin took the stage for his final press conference of Super Bowl week, the Giants coach reflected yesterday morning on the brief meeting he had a moment earlier with Don Shula, the NFL’s all-time coaching wins leader.
“A true Hall of Famer,’’ Coughlin said reverentially.
There may be a day when a younger head coach refers to Coughlin in such respectful tones, a day that could come one step closer to reality if his Giants complete yet another astounding journey tomorrow night in Super Bowl XLVI against the Patriots.
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With a victory, Coughlin vaults a proud career into a historic one. Two Super Bowl titles does not automatically open the doors of Canton; Tom Flores, George Seifert and Jimmy Johnson all have two rings as head coaches and aren’t in, and Bill Parcells awaits admission today.
Vinny DiTrani, longtime football writer for The Record and a Hall of Fame voter for 12 years, said a second Super Bowl victory for Coughlin “gets him in the room” for discussion, especially when Coughlin’s work turning the Jaguars into the NFL’s most successful expansion team is factored in.
“He’s definitely going to have a strong case,” DiTrani said.
Legacy talk this week was met with dismissive pleas by Coughlin to please turn the discussion to the team, not the resume.
He referred to the message resonating in the ears of the Giants ever since they failed so miserably to qualify for the 2010 playoffs, done in by a late-season meltdown.
Coughlin’s decree then and now remains the same: Finish.
“The first thing we hit ’em with when they came to training camp,’’ Coughlin said, “and it will be the last thing they hear from us before they take the field.’’
Before the Giants take the field, they will hear one final motivational message from Coughlin. He wouldn’t reveal the content of tonight’s address, but you can bet it will hit on many of these themes:
“We spent a couple years out of the playoffs, and our hunger for being back was great,’’ Coughlin said. “There were times this year when it looked like it wasn’t going to happen for us this year and it did again.
“You have to have a great appreciation for this. Anyone who goes through this experience and doesn’t grab a hold of it or grasp the significance of it doesn’t understand that there are great, outstanding coaches and players who haven’t been to a Super Bowl game. You thank God for the opportunity, and you never, ever, tire or even possibly think this happens on a normal basis. It doesn’t.’’
Just as he did four years ago, Coughlin paused when he was done to pose with the Lombardi Trophy, which was sitting atop a table that also held the helmets of the Giants and Patriots. An hour earlier, Patriots coach Bill Belichick disappointed the mass of photographers by walking past the trophy without stopping for a picture.
There is no doubt Belichick is a first-ballot Hall of Famer in waiting. If Coughlin not once, but twice takes an upstart Giants team and beats Belichick’s Patriots in the Super Bowl, sentiment will be strong to enshrine Coughlin whenever he decides to retire.
No man who ever coached in the league has a greater appreciation for the history of the game and no one would beam more brightly with pride if he one day is selected. But enshrinement can wait, because there is a game to be played and a championship to be gained.
paul.schwartz@nypost.com