Missed star? If Parcells had left last year
San Antonio Express-News
CHICAGO — Bill Parcells mulled retirement a year ago, too, and that was without Terrell Owens giving him a less-than-gentle push in the back. Parcells bravely re-upped then with a nice bump in salary.
But what would have happened had Parcells walked away last year? Would Jerry Jones have realized he already had a star on his staff?
And had he, would most others have sniffed and seen Sean Payton as merely the next Dave Campo?
Dallas — and the rest of football — now sees Payton as the next Midas. He rebuilt the Saints in about a month, which is the kind of timetable most thought Parcells would follow with the Cowboys.
Parcells, instead, is still without a playoff win in Texas, and Payton coaches for the Super Bowl today as everyone's coach of the year. Jones has to feel the way Tony Romo did in Seattle; didn't something slip through his fingers, too?
Payton had a few things go right for him, such as the Texans thinking Reggie Bush just didn't fit with the fine program they are building. But Payton seemingly has made every right move with the Saints, beginning with his gamble on Drew Brees and his surgically repaired shoulder.
Payton showed some of the same instincts in Dallas, most notably with Romo. This is what Larry Lacewell, the team's former director of player personnel, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the weeks leading up to the 2003 draft:
"It was Parcells' first draft with us, and I'm trying to make him happy and get to know him, but I've got Payton, and one of our scouts, Jim Hess, constantly bugging the hell outta me about some kid named Tony Romo. Everybody else is trying to decide if Terence Newman is our first pick and how deep we could go and still get (Jason) Witten, but those two, Payton and Hess, they wouldn't quit talking about this Tony Romo."
Payton, as Romo did, played quarterback at Eastern Illinois. That's why Lacewell started calling Romo, "Sean's alumni draft pick."
No team drafted Romo, however. "By the sixth round that year," Lacewell continued, "Sean was practically standing on the table, telling us to take Romo. We didn't, and not in the seventh, either, but the good thing is both Sean and Hess were on the phone with Tony constantly, assuring him we still wanted him ... Romo is with the Cowboys mainly because of Payton and a lot of Hess. They kept his name in front of us all the way."
Jones might have remembered that draft-room scene. If not, Lacewell, one of his confidants, would have reminded him.
But it isn't easy measuring assistants. A lot of it is perception, and Payton's wasn't much then.
The Raiders had already offered Payton their head-coach position, but that doesn't mean much. The Raiders offer the job and get turned down by a lot of people.
Payton doesn't look like a head coach, but one previous incident shaped Payton's image as much as anything. Then-Giants coach Jim Fassel, feeling the heat of a slow start, demoted Payton as his play-caller.
The twist to that came this season. As Payton soared in New Orleans, Baltimore's Brian Billick fired his offensive coordinator in the same, humiliating way. That was Fassel.
Jones might have seen through all of that had Parcells left, and Jones might have turned away from hires that would have made headlines sizzle, such as Bob Stoops. But there was the same grumbling going on during the 2005 season as there was this last year, and no one saw Payton as the lone, shining light.
The media would have been split. Again, there was little special about Payton before the Romo stuff evolved, and reporters don't know much about Dallas assistants anyway. Parcells never lets his assistants talk.
A guess: If Payton had been promoted as Parcells left, the crowd would have been less than enthused.
And that's another reason, as Parcells mulls retirement again, Payton is the next Midas. He was lucky he didn't end up in Dallas — and instead went to a traditional loser last summer that didn't have a quarterback or a stadium.
CHICAGO — Bill Parcells mulled retirement a year ago, too, and that was without Terrell Owens giving him a less-than-gentle push in the back. Parcells bravely re-upped then with a nice bump in salary.
But what would have happened had Parcells walked away last year? Would Jerry Jones have realized he already had a star on his staff?
And had he, would most others have sniffed and seen Sean Payton as merely the next Dave Campo?
Dallas — and the rest of football — now sees Payton as the next Midas. He rebuilt the Saints in about a month, which is the kind of timetable most thought Parcells would follow with the Cowboys.
Parcells, instead, is still without a playoff win in Texas, and Payton coaches for the Super Bowl today as everyone's coach of the year. Jones has to feel the way Tony Romo did in Seattle; didn't something slip through his fingers, too?
Payton had a few things go right for him, such as the Texans thinking Reggie Bush just didn't fit with the fine program they are building. But Payton seemingly has made every right move with the Saints, beginning with his gamble on Drew Brees and his surgically repaired shoulder.
Payton showed some of the same instincts in Dallas, most notably with Romo. This is what Larry Lacewell, the team's former director of player personnel, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the weeks leading up to the 2003 draft:
"It was Parcells' first draft with us, and I'm trying to make him happy and get to know him, but I've got Payton, and one of our scouts, Jim Hess, constantly bugging the hell outta me about some kid named Tony Romo. Everybody else is trying to decide if Terence Newman is our first pick and how deep we could go and still get (Jason) Witten, but those two, Payton and Hess, they wouldn't quit talking about this Tony Romo."
Payton, as Romo did, played quarterback at Eastern Illinois. That's why Lacewell started calling Romo, "Sean's alumni draft pick."
No team drafted Romo, however. "By the sixth round that year," Lacewell continued, "Sean was practically standing on the table, telling us to take Romo. We didn't, and not in the seventh, either, but the good thing is both Sean and Hess were on the phone with Tony constantly, assuring him we still wanted him ... Romo is with the Cowboys mainly because of Payton and a lot of Hess. They kept his name in front of us all the way."
Jones might have remembered that draft-room scene. If not, Lacewell, one of his confidants, would have reminded him.
But it isn't easy measuring assistants. A lot of it is perception, and Payton's wasn't much then.
The Raiders had already offered Payton their head-coach position, but that doesn't mean much. The Raiders offer the job and get turned down by a lot of people.
Payton doesn't look like a head coach, but one previous incident shaped Payton's image as much as anything. Then-Giants coach Jim Fassel, feeling the heat of a slow start, demoted Payton as his play-caller.
The twist to that came this season. As Payton soared in New Orleans, Baltimore's Brian Billick fired his offensive coordinator in the same, humiliating way. That was Fassel.
Jones might have seen through all of that had Parcells left, and Jones might have turned away from hires that would have made headlines sizzle, such as Bob Stoops. But there was the same grumbling going on during the 2005 season as there was this last year, and no one saw Payton as the lone, shining light.
The media would have been split. Again, there was little special about Payton before the Romo stuff evolved, and reporters don't know much about Dallas assistants anyway. Parcells never lets his assistants talk.
A guess: If Payton had been promoted as Parcells left, the crowd would have been less than enthused.
And that's another reason, as Parcells mulls retirement again, Payton is the next Midas. He was lucky he didn't end up in Dallas — and instead went to a traditional loser last summer that didn't have a quarterback or a stadium.
posted by The Gryphon at 9:26 AM
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