I often wonder what John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald would say to each other if gathered in a room. They probably would argue about the nature of man, then a fistfight would break out, and afterward they would all laugh about it over martinis.

I’m equally curious what would occur if Howard Hughes, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and William Randolph Hearst got together for a chat. They likely would discuss the virtues of the human spirit, then they would start throwing punches before cracking open a bottle of good cognac and sharing some wry observations.

But I don’t think at all about what would transpire if Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs, Andy Reid and Tom Coughlin were assembled in one place. First of all, it wouldn’t happen, because in order to get them in the same room, you would have to drag them out of their film sessions or practices, and that just isn’t going to happen. Also, they wouldn’t resort to violence to express themselves; that’s what football players get paid for. As for enjoying drinks together, let’s just say that Parcells and Reid should stick to diet colas, while Gibbs and Coughlin would probably never ingest anything during the football season that would affect their judgment.

Bringing four titans together from any one profession is always a tall order, especially when you’re picking from different eras and many of the candidates are dead.

But that’s not a problem in the NFL’s NFC East. It has become the cradle of coaching, and that figures to produce more than just lively conversation and empty cocktail glasses.

Parcells, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants and took the New England Patriots to another. Joe Gibbs is back with the Washington Redskins, the team he coached from 1981 to 1992; he took the ’Skins to four Super Bowls, winning three.

Neither Reid nor Coughlin has taken teams to Super Bowls yet. But Reid has led the Philadelphia Eagles to three NFC title games and won coach-of-the-year honors twice in his five seasons as head coach. And with the additions of Terrell Owens and Jevon Kearse, the Eagles are one of the favorites to win it all this season. Coughlin, who takes over a rebuilding Giants squad in 2004, coached the Jacksonville Jaguars for eight seasons, reaching the 1996 AFC championship game.

Just about every division in football has an illustrious coach or two. New England’s Bill Belichick, with two Super Bowl championships, owns the AFC East. In the AFC West, Kansas City’s Dick Vermeil has one ring (from his days with the St. Louis Rams) and Denver’s Mike Shanahan has two.

But top to bottom, the NFC East lineup represents the most dense cluster of football sages outside of a Hall of Fame reunion.

INTERACTIVE Breaking down NFC East's coaches

Gibbs and Parcells will have to arm-wrestle over the title of dean. Gibbs has one more world championship than Parcells, but the Tuna has coached longer — 15 NFL seasons as a head coach compared to 12 for Gibbs. Parcells has guided four teams — the Giants, Patriots, Jets and Cowboys — to the playoffs, whereas Gibbs has been head coach of only one franchise.

Gibbs and Parcells have had a rock-star effects on their current teams. Dan Snyder just couldn’t seem to settle on a coach. He fired Marty Schottenheimer in order to hire Steve Spurrier, but that was about as productive a move in Redskins history as the drafting of Heath Shuler. When Snyder axed Spurrier and hired Gibbs, a noticeable sigh of relief emanated from the team’s faithful. The move represented instant credibility on a team that was losing hope of ever recovering any.

Parcells is in his second season with the Cowboys, and is coming off a minor miracle. The Cowboys had no business making the playoffs last season. But Parcells has a unique approach to coaching. Besides his experience and technical expertise, he mixes snarling sarcasm with fierce encouragement, and the results are usually loyalty, dedication and determination from his players.

Parcells has already laid the groundwork for success in Dallas, although he may have suffered a setback with the Quincy Carter debacle. Still, he has a jump on Gibbs, who is taking the reins of a moribund squad and trying to rekindle the excitement he established during his first tenure with the team. Gibbs spent the past several years as an owner on the NASCAR circuit, so the only connections he has had with the NFL since 1992 have been a few overlapping sponsors.

Cradle of coaches Career records of NFC East coaches Coach Team Tot. Yrs W-L Bill Parcells Cowboys 16 159-113-1 Tom Coughlin Giants 8 68-60 Joe Gibbs Redskins 13 124-60 Andy Reid Eagles 6 43-28

Reid is on the rise, but also under the gun. The fans in Philadelphia are thrilled that the Eagles keep gaining the NFC title game, and livid that they get no further. Soon, Reid will have to take the next step in order to solidify his place in this NFC East pantheon. He has the best team of the four, but his Eagles are in danger of becoming the Buffalo Bills, only without the Super Bowl cache.

Of the four, Coughlin is the least accomplished, and he has a dicey quarterback situation. Does he play declining veteran Kurt Warner or rookie Eli Manning? He has chosen Warner to start the opener, but that decision is hardly set in stone. Coughlin seems determined to run a tight ship. Recently he insisted that veteran starters Tiki Barber and Amani Toomer return punts, which caused some head-scratching. Usually that job is reserved for either a specialist, or a quick and gullible kid desperate for an opportunity.

And Coughlin, like Reid, has an unrelenting and unforgiving media contingent to deal with. Philly is rough, but New York is equally rough and the media more numerous. Coughlin also has the most to prove of the four, so he’ll have a stiff challenge. It’s one thing to withstand the heat of Jacksonville reporters, it’s quite another to hold up under the New York onslaught.

Whichever way the division shakes out, the head coaches will probably get a lot more attention than the guys on the field. You can be sure that whenever there is a meeting of the minds in the NFC East, all eyes and ears will be on high alert.

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