EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The notion that coaches in the N.F.L. have job security has always been something of a misconception. Positions are few. Expectations are high. Careers are short. And, generally, one can expect the current prevailing sentiment about a coach’s performance — whatever that sentiment might be — to have all the staying power of rent money.

Tom Coughlin is only the latest example. Over the last month, he has been probed and prodded, his résumé laid bare for examination by fans and talk-show hosts and the news media. The scrutiny, at times, has bordered on hysterical, which makes it not all that different from any other moment during Coughlin’s tenure.

Such is life in New York show business, though, a fact that Coughlin, 65, has learned well over the past eight years. He knows that trying to keep up with the varying temperature changes of a coach’s hot seat is an exercise in futility. That was why, late Sunday after the Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, he demurred when asked if he took any personal satisfaction in the Giants’ latest N.F.C. East title.

“It is not a time for reflection,” he said. When pressed a second time by a reporter, who then laid out all the reasons why Coughlin might be pleased, he almost scoffed. “Thank you for recapping,” he said.