Rolle has become big fan of Coughlin

It wasn't even a year ago that Antrel Rolle was on a Miami radio station blasting Tom Coughlin's style of coaching, marveling at the "chemistry" the Jets were showing and insinuating that he would rather play for someone like Rex Ryan.

On Monday, though, Rolle stood at his locker and basically said he was wrong. The irony, of course, is that he said this on a day when Ryan was in another corner of the state trying to keep his team from falling into disarray.

"It more had to do with me as opposed to him," Rolle said. "I was never used to his coaching style. I was extremely frustrated at times about things I didn't agree with. It was a different situation for me and I didn't know how to handle it."

Rolle even thought he'd made a mistake signing with the Giants two years ago. But he did some offseason soul-searching -- a process that has continued in recent weeks -- and decided he would play by Coughlin's rules. Now he says he doesn't want to play for anyone else.

"Hopefully, he can be here for my whole time here," he said, "and if not, we're going to send him out with a bang."

That bang would conceivably be a second Super Bowl title and a Coughlin retirement into the sunset. With the Giants in the playoffs, that's certainly a possibility. Had they not made the playoffs, another possibility loomed, and Rolle said he took note of that.

"When you have speculation that your coach's job is up for grabs, any kind of threatening situation, I take that very personally," Rolle said. "No coach that Antrel Rolle is playing for's job should be up for grabs. That's just the way I view it. It speaks a lot about him. I know especially coming from me because things started out so rocky between us . . . That's a part of him being his own guy and me being my own guy. But as long as we can work through it and keep that one goal in mind, which is winning a championship, things are going to be great."

Coughlin called Rolle "an emotional guy" who "wears it on his sleeve. He gives you everything he's got." He also said he wasn't surprised that it took Rolle some time to find his place with the Giants and with him. "I would think that it takes a while for someone coming into a program just to figure out what it's all about, who's who," he said.

"Last year, we had 10 wins and didn't get in [the playoffs], so there was some frustration. There's been frustration [this year], which has been dealt with pretty well. Now we're seeing the result of having some patience and continuing to work."It took Coughlin time to get used to Rolle, too. "I'm not an easy cookie all the time, I understand that," Rolle said, smiling. "He knows I mean well and I would never try to do anything to hurt this group and I love this team as if they're my family . . . I think he understands me better this year as a player and I think I definitely understand him a lot better as a coach and I respect him as a coach."