Cowboys coach Wade Phillips presents, to say the least, a very different demeanor and style than his predecessor, Bill Parcells.

Phillips is a nice guy.  Parcells isn’t.

But not many nice guys make good coaches.  In a sport where players are asked to ignore pain and fatigue and extreme heat and bitter cold, nice guys might have a hard time getting players to comply.

Nice guys are too — what’s the word? — nice.

According to Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Cowboys players during the Parcells area dreaded film session after a loss.  Under Phillips, it’s no big thing.

“We are not really afraid of film session,” an unnamed Cowboys player recently said.

The challenge for coaches in the modern, free-agency driven NFL is to find a way to press buttons without unnecessarily bruising psyches.  Or bodies.  Players who have options will often gravitate toward coaches with a reputation for not being, well, assholes.

Then again, that dynamic could make it easier for the not-so-nice coaches to identify the free agents who want to win.  Because those players realize that accountability is a key component of success in the sport, and that’s likely one of the reasons why guys like Parcells and Bill Belichick and other coaches perceived as something other than creampuffs consistently win more games than they lose.  The players who want a coach who’ll get the most out of his team will realize that, while life might be easy under a nice guy, there won’t be many trophies on the shelf.