Parcells, Green are ax-eligible
Nancy Gay
San Fran. Chronicle
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
The NFL Hot Seat brigade has moved up a notch this week, and now head coaches, not lowly coordinators, are feeling some serious heat.
Week 7, in which career-threatening coaching decisions exploded across the league like a Terrell Owens' sideline hissy fit, has left the Cowboys' Bill Parcells and the Cardinals' Dennis Green scrambling to keep their jobs.
Question is, does Parcells really want his gig anymore?
Monday night's quarterback derby at Texas Stadium, during which the fiery Dallas coach ushered in the Tony Romo Era either, 1) Six weeks too late 2) A few weeks too late or 3) At precisely the wrong time, has the hothead sounding more defeated than he ever has.
"I'm ashamed to put a team on the field that looked like that," Parcells said meekly after the Giants destroyed his team 36-22. "I apologize to the people who came out to watch that. That's not good football."
That? The Cowboys' performance was one thing, and yeah, it was pretty bad.
But that postgame performance was not the Parcells we've come to know. Where was the bluster? The fury? Parcells was red-faced, all right, and it had nothing to do with his legendary temper.
In a nutshell: Quarterback Drew Bledsoe, whose renowned feet of stone were unable to escape the New York pass rush, was sacked four times and threw a really lousy interception just before halftime.
Parcells made the Dallas fans cheer by yanking Bledsoe and going with Romo, the fourth-year backup the coach was rumored to favor during training camp.
Romo's first pass was an interception. By the end of the night, he would throw two more picks and take three sacks. Romo even got a revealing taste of what it's like to play with Owens -- the receiver dropped a fourth-down throw from Romo, then laughed about it as he trotted to the sideline.
And Parcells now has a huge mess on his hands.
No way can he go back to Bledsoe. Parcells handed the team to Romo, a quarterback without an NFL start to his name, on a national stage in the middle of a game against a division rival.
Parcells knew he couldn't make that move in training camp because Bledsoe is not a backup. Bledsoe made that perfectly clear when he was benched in New England in favor of Tom Brady, and he reiterated his stance on being No. 2 on Monday night.
"It was a bad decision," Bledsoe described Parcells' halftime move. Cue Week 8 as the point at which the Cowboys' descent coincides with Bledsoe developing a bad attitude.
Maybe Owens' ongoing antics have taken an exhausting toll on the Tuna, who no longer refers to his diva wideout by name. Parcells hasn't openly questioned Owens' gender, as he did when he once referred to wide receiver Terry Glenn as "she." But there are still 10 weeks left in the season.
They might be Parcells' final 10 weeks as an NFL head coach.
In Arizona, Green very well might be a guy trying to get himself run out of town.
Two painfully bad losses in two weeks -- the 24-23 home collapse against the Bears and a 22-9 laydown against the Raiders in Oakland despite collecting five turnovers and five sacks -- have left Green on slippery footing.
Hard to believe, but the Cardinals (1-6) are off to their worst start in nine seasons. It's really hard to believe when you consider that franchise's last winning season was in 1998 (9-7 under Vince Tobin).
The notoriously difficult (and cheap) Bidwill ownership opened up the wallet a bit this past offseason, along with that gorgeous new stadium in the desert, paying top dollar for free-agent running back Edgerrin James and first-round pick Matt Leinart.
By all accounts, Green has had the tools to win and he has squandered them.
Now everyone is looking for an exit strategy. The Bidwills don't want to fire Green because they would be on the hook for the remaining $2.5 million on the coach's contract, which expires in 2007. There is also a club option for 2008, but we can kiss that goodbye.
The Bidwills would rather Green simply quit, so they can avoid paying him.
Green seems intent on getting the boot and, thus, his cash. Last week, Green wanted to fire his offensive coordinator, Keith Rowen. Green apparently was overruled, and Rowen was "demoted" to the title of "offensive assistant."
Rowen disagrees. He knows the game in Arizona, and he has filed a grievance with the NFL office seeking to get the Cardinals to concede he actually was fired. Rowen, like Green, just wants to get paid.
Meanwhile, James -- who has an NFL-most 161 rushing attempts and only 432 yards and two touchdowns to show for them -- realizes his friends were right when they told him he was selling his soul, leaving behind all that success with the Colts to grab the big money from the dysfunctional Cardinals.
"They warned me about this. ... I wasn't prepared for this, man, I really wasn't, when making my decision," James said after the Raiders' loss. "I don't know what we're doing now."
Looks like James isn't alone there.
San Fran. Chronicle
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
The NFL Hot Seat brigade has moved up a notch this week, and now head coaches, not lowly coordinators, are feeling some serious heat.
Week 7, in which career-threatening coaching decisions exploded across the league like a Terrell Owens' sideline hissy fit, has left the Cowboys' Bill Parcells and the Cardinals' Dennis Green scrambling to keep their jobs.
Question is, does Parcells really want his gig anymore?
Monday night's quarterback derby at Texas Stadium, during which the fiery Dallas coach ushered in the Tony Romo Era either, 1) Six weeks too late 2) A few weeks too late or 3) At precisely the wrong time, has the hothead sounding more defeated than he ever has.
"I'm ashamed to put a team on the field that looked like that," Parcells said meekly after the Giants destroyed his team 36-22. "I apologize to the people who came out to watch that. That's not good football."
That? The Cowboys' performance was one thing, and yeah, it was pretty bad.
But that postgame performance was not the Parcells we've come to know. Where was the bluster? The fury? Parcells was red-faced, all right, and it had nothing to do with his legendary temper.
In a nutshell: Quarterback Drew Bledsoe, whose renowned feet of stone were unable to escape the New York pass rush, was sacked four times and threw a really lousy interception just before halftime.
Parcells made the Dallas fans cheer by yanking Bledsoe and going with Romo, the fourth-year backup the coach was rumored to favor during training camp.
Romo's first pass was an interception. By the end of the night, he would throw two more picks and take three sacks. Romo even got a revealing taste of what it's like to play with Owens -- the receiver dropped a fourth-down throw from Romo, then laughed about it as he trotted to the sideline.
And Parcells now has a huge mess on his hands.
No way can he go back to Bledsoe. Parcells handed the team to Romo, a quarterback without an NFL start to his name, on a national stage in the middle of a game against a division rival.
Parcells knew he couldn't make that move in training camp because Bledsoe is not a backup. Bledsoe made that perfectly clear when he was benched in New England in favor of Tom Brady, and he reiterated his stance on being No. 2 on Monday night.
"It was a bad decision," Bledsoe described Parcells' halftime move. Cue Week 8 as the point at which the Cowboys' descent coincides with Bledsoe developing a bad attitude.
Maybe Owens' ongoing antics have taken an exhausting toll on the Tuna, who no longer refers to his diva wideout by name. Parcells hasn't openly questioned Owens' gender, as he did when he once referred to wide receiver Terry Glenn as "she." But there are still 10 weeks left in the season.
They might be Parcells' final 10 weeks as an NFL head coach.
In Arizona, Green very well might be a guy trying to get himself run out of town.
Two painfully bad losses in two weeks -- the 24-23 home collapse against the Bears and a 22-9 laydown against the Raiders in Oakland despite collecting five turnovers and five sacks -- have left Green on slippery footing.
Hard to believe, but the Cardinals (1-6) are off to their worst start in nine seasons. It's really hard to believe when you consider that franchise's last winning season was in 1998 (9-7 under Vince Tobin).
The notoriously difficult (and cheap) Bidwill ownership opened up the wallet a bit this past offseason, along with that gorgeous new stadium in the desert, paying top dollar for free-agent running back Edgerrin James and first-round pick Matt Leinart.
By all accounts, Green has had the tools to win and he has squandered them.
Now everyone is looking for an exit strategy. The Bidwills don't want to fire Green because they would be on the hook for the remaining $2.5 million on the coach's contract, which expires in 2007. There is also a club option for 2008, but we can kiss that goodbye.
The Bidwills would rather Green simply quit, so they can avoid paying him.
Green seems intent on getting the boot and, thus, his cash. Last week, Green wanted to fire his offensive coordinator, Keith Rowen. Green apparently was overruled, and Rowen was "demoted" to the title of "offensive assistant."
Rowen disagrees. He knows the game in Arizona, and he has filed a grievance with the NFL office seeking to get the Cardinals to concede he actually was fired. Rowen, like Green, just wants to get paid.
Meanwhile, James -- who has an NFL-most 161 rushing attempts and only 432 yards and two touchdowns to show for them -- realizes his friends were right when they told him he was selling his soul, leaving behind all that success with the Colts to grab the big money from the dysfunctional Cardinals.
"They warned me about this. ... I wasn't prepared for this, man, I really wasn't, when making my decision," James said after the Raiders' loss. "I don't know what we're doing now."
Looks like James isn't alone there.
posted by The Gryphon at 8:27 PM
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