[Dahoss]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...yantrust010811

Ryan may sound like the biggest ego in the game, but that’s only when the cameras are on. The establishment blue print for NFL coaches is to act one way in public only to domineer over every facet of a franchise in private. These are the control freaks, the retentive, paranoid personalities that date back to Lombardi, Rockne and beyond.

On how many NFL sidelines would a receiver not even dare to plead for an out-of-the-box pass play at the game’s most critical moment?

“I think it says exactly what we are always preaching: ‘This is OUR team, ‘ ” said LaDainian Tomlinson(notes). “The players have voices, too. It’s not like that everywhere. Some coaches think what they say goes. The coaches here are open to the players’ opinions.”

And here’s why his locker room never grumbles when he makes promises they have to keep or he calls out opponents they have to stop.

Ego isn’t a coach saying things at press conferences. Ego is a coach who’s convinced he invented the game of football and will belittle anyone who challenges him. Ego is a coach who calculates the blame game just in case things go wrong. There’s a league full of those guys – a bunch of them watching the playoffs from home.
“That’s just his personality,” cornerback Antonio Cromartie(notes) said. “He brings a different style of coaching. He trusts us. So we trust him. I don’t worry about what he says. I’ll run through a brick wall for him.”