Parcells stuck between rock and hard place
Ian O'Connor / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 1 hour ago
Bill Parcells has been around long enough to know the score.
He understands that the worst kind of quarterback controversy does not involve a choice between two first-string passers, but a choice between two second-rate arms.
Tony Romo? Drew Bledsoe?
What difference does it make?
Yes, Romo is a scrambler, an athlete, an Olympic sprinter when measured against Bledsoe's mummified remains. But if Romo looked like the quarterback to lead Dallas out of its 3-3 mess and into an improbable Super Bowl run during the second half of Monday night's loss to the Giants, then Terrell Owens is your Sportsman of the Year.
Parcells did this to himself, of course. By not having a viable quarterback on his roster, he has all but guaranteed that his fourth season with the Cowboys will be his third consecutive season without a playoff berth.
A Jurassic, stationary target like Bledsoe never made any sense to begin with, not in a league where pass rushers get faster and more athletic by the possession. Bledsoe once took the Patriots to a Super Bowl, but that was 10 years and a zillion blindside hits ago.
And how good can Romo be, anyway, when he's needed a fourth season to get on the field? Parcells has gone through the likes of Chad Hutchinson, Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Henson and Bledsoe to get to Romo. Parcells went through everyone but Clint Longley.
So now the coach is stuck between a crock and a hard place. Parcells came to Dallas for one last shot at another Super Bowl ring to go with the two he won with the Giants, that third ring he failed to win with the Patriots and the Jets.
Parcells wanted another title badly enough to agree to work for Jerry Jones, who stood for everything the coach thought an owner shouldn't be. Parcells loved Wellington Mara, a football lifer who preferred to remain in the shadows. Parcells loathed Bob Kraft, a superfan-turned-owner who liked to sun himself in the network camera lights.
Jones is Kraft times 10, a guy just itching to draw up the plays. Parcells met him at the altar because he figured the marital pain was worth the potential gain.
Winning it all with the Cowboys, America's team, would send Parcells' legacy through the Texas Stadium roof. He might even go down as the greatest NFL coach of all time.
But along the way, Parcells neglected the one guiding principle of the sport that brought him fortune and fame:
You have no chance without a quarterback.
And hey, it's not like Parcells hasn't had his share of quarterback problems in the past. His first year as a head coach was defined by his disastrous decision to start Scott Brunner over Phil Simms, a choice that gave birth to a 3-12-1 record.
Parcells opened his tenure with the Jets by feuding with Neil O'Donnell, their wretched relationship ending with a profane sideline screaming match. After he moved out O'Donnell and rode Testaverde to the AFC title game, Parcells watched his Super Bowl dreams collapse with Testaverde's left Achilles' tendon in the following year's opener, leaving the Jets in the wayward hands of Rick Mirer.
Jerry Jones gave Parcells his final crack at the biggest Sunday in sports. The coach had named his daughter Dallas after the storied franchise, so he didn't need any history course to freshen up on Cowboys lore.
Drew Bledsoe picked a bad time to throw a pick. (Matt Slocum / Associated Press)
He knew they'd won their five Super Bowls with Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman — Hall of Famers both — behind center. There was no mystery to that. Parcells would need to find a star at the game's most conspicuous position (by far) to win it all.
"I used to think a basketball center was the most important position in sports," Giants GM Ernie Accorsi told me once, "but Michael Jordan changed all that. Quarterback is the most important. If you wrote down the names of the 100 quarterbacks who played in the last 50 years of ultimate championship games, with seven or eight exceptions, you're talking about the Hall of Fame. That's no coincidence."
It's no coincidence that Parcells hasn't won a single playoff game in Dallas. Truth is, he hasn't had a quarterback worthy of advancing in the Super Bowl tournament.
Now Bledsoe is struggling. He's struggling at the wrong time for the wrong coach.
"(Parcells) is a very difficult guy to play for when you're playing badly," Simms once told me. "He makes it so uncomfortable for you. He's just someone you don't want to be around when things aren't going well."
Bledsoe and Romo have no choice but to be around Parcells for the season's balance. They're stuck together, all three of them. Stuck in the worst kind of quarterback controversy — one with no attractive options, never mind two.
Posted: 1 hour ago
Bill Parcells has been around long enough to know the score.
He understands that the worst kind of quarterback controversy does not involve a choice between two first-string passers, but a choice between two second-rate arms.
Tony Romo? Drew Bledsoe?
What difference does it make?
Yes, Romo is a scrambler, an athlete, an Olympic sprinter when measured against Bledsoe's mummified remains. But if Romo looked like the quarterback to lead Dallas out of its 3-3 mess and into an improbable Super Bowl run during the second half of Monday night's loss to the Giants, then Terrell Owens is your Sportsman of the Year.
Parcells did this to himself, of course. By not having a viable quarterback on his roster, he has all but guaranteed that his fourth season with the Cowboys will be his third consecutive season without a playoff berth.
A Jurassic, stationary target like Bledsoe never made any sense to begin with, not in a league where pass rushers get faster and more athletic by the possession. Bledsoe once took the Patriots to a Super Bowl, but that was 10 years and a zillion blindside hits ago.
And how good can Romo be, anyway, when he's needed a fourth season to get on the field? Parcells has gone through the likes of Chad Hutchinson, Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Henson and Bledsoe to get to Romo. Parcells went through everyone but Clint Longley.
So now the coach is stuck between a crock and a hard place. Parcells came to Dallas for one last shot at another Super Bowl ring to go with the two he won with the Giants, that third ring he failed to win with the Patriots and the Jets.
Parcells wanted another title badly enough to agree to work for Jerry Jones, who stood for everything the coach thought an owner shouldn't be. Parcells loved Wellington Mara, a football lifer who preferred to remain in the shadows. Parcells loathed Bob Kraft, a superfan-turned-owner who liked to sun himself in the network camera lights.
Jones is Kraft times 10, a guy just itching to draw up the plays. Parcells met him at the altar because he figured the marital pain was worth the potential gain.
Winning it all with the Cowboys, America's team, would send Parcells' legacy through the Texas Stadium roof. He might even go down as the greatest NFL coach of all time.
But along the way, Parcells neglected the one guiding principle of the sport that brought him fortune and fame:
You have no chance without a quarterback.
And hey, it's not like Parcells hasn't had his share of quarterback problems in the past. His first year as a head coach was defined by his disastrous decision to start Scott Brunner over Phil Simms, a choice that gave birth to a 3-12-1 record.
Parcells opened his tenure with the Jets by feuding with Neil O'Donnell, their wretched relationship ending with a profane sideline screaming match. After he moved out O'Donnell and rode Testaverde to the AFC title game, Parcells watched his Super Bowl dreams collapse with Testaverde's left Achilles' tendon in the following year's opener, leaving the Jets in the wayward hands of Rick Mirer.
Jerry Jones gave Parcells his final crack at the biggest Sunday in sports. The coach had named his daughter Dallas after the storied franchise, so he didn't need any history course to freshen up on Cowboys lore.
Drew Bledsoe picked a bad time to throw a pick. (Matt Slocum / Associated Press)
He knew they'd won their five Super Bowls with Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman — Hall of Famers both — behind center. There was no mystery to that. Parcells would need to find a star at the game's most conspicuous position (by far) to win it all.
"I used to think a basketball center was the most important position in sports," Giants GM Ernie Accorsi told me once, "but Michael Jordan changed all that. Quarterback is the most important. If you wrote down the names of the 100 quarterbacks who played in the last 50 years of ultimate championship games, with seven or eight exceptions, you're talking about the Hall of Fame. That's no coincidence."
It's no coincidence that Parcells hasn't won a single playoff game in Dallas. Truth is, he hasn't had a quarterback worthy of advancing in the Super Bowl tournament.
Now Bledsoe is struggling. He's struggling at the wrong time for the wrong coach.
"(Parcells) is a very difficult guy to play for when you're playing badly," Simms once told me. "He makes it so uncomfortable for you. He's just someone you don't want to be around when things aren't going well."
Bledsoe and Romo have no choice but to be around Parcells for the season's balance. They're stuck together, all three of them. Stuck in the worst kind of quarterback controversy — one with no attractive options, never mind two.
posted by The Gryphon at 7:47 PM
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