National Football League

Rolle wants Coughlin to loosen up

Published Jan. 18, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

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New York Giants' safety Antrel Rolle says his team is better than the Jets, even though the Giants' season has long been over while the Jets have stormed into the AFC Championship Game, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

The reason for this is because head coach Rex Ryan allows the Jets to have fun, an atmosphere Tom Coughlin does not allow to exist with the Giants, Rolle explained.

"I'd like to see the Jets take it, I honestly would," Rolle said Monday in a radio interview with Sid Rosenberg on WQAM in Miami.

"I'm a firm believer in you get what you deserve. They've been working hard all year long. Do I think they're the best team out there? I don't think they're the best team out there. You can name a lot of teams better than them. If you match us up against the Jets, do I think they're a better team? No, I don't think so at all," Rolle went on.

"But when it comes to their chemistry, I think their chemistry might be better than ours," he added. "I think they have a lot more fun than we have. ... At the end of the day, yeah, we're professional athletes, we get paid a lot of money to do what we do but we're all human. No one is a robot at this level. We do have feelings, we like to have fun."

The Jets under Ryan are all about fun, and winning, too.

"People want to talk about Rex Ryan and this, that and the other, that team is going to war for him," Rolle said. "They would die for him."

The Giants' other starting safety, Kenny Phillips, also joined in the interview and clearly is intrigued by Ryan's coaching style.

"I would love to play for a guy like Rex," Phillips told Rosenberg. "He goes to bat for his players. He'll take the blame, he allows you to be you. He's not asking you to hide. If you're a guy who likes to talk, go out and talk, as long as you back it up. His guys are playing for him and I'd love to be a part of that."

Asked, "Who is Tom Coughlin?" Phillips said, "Honestly I don't know. Still trying to figure it out. ... He's a strict guy, sometimes he's kind of loose. He's sort of like a general, especially the way he runs his football team."

On a personal level, Rolle called Coughlin "one of the best guys you could be around, describing him as "very caring" and "honest." But as a coach Rolle said that is where he has some issues with the 64-year-old.

"When you're talking about the coaching side of things, do I feel like things are a little too uptight? Yeah, I do. If he just loosened up just a little bit, run the ship the way you want to run it, run the program the way you want to run it but let us have a little fun, because at the end of the day that's what it's all about," he said.