Parcells really riding off into sunset?
Time off may convince 66-year-old coach to return to sidelines
OPINION
By Dave Goldberg
Updated: 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
In 1979, Bill Parcells accepted a job to become linebackers coach of the New York Giants. He then backed out, persuaded by his wife and daughters to stay in Colorado, where had been head coach at Air Force.
A year later, he got the same job with the New England Patriots. A year after that, he became the Giants’ defensive coordinator, joining a rookie linebacker named Lawrence Taylor.
A quarter-century later, he has left football — or so he says.
“Bill can always tell you his game plan for the next three games. But he rarely can tell you what he’ll do the next day, let alone the next month or the next year,” the late George Young, Parcells’ boss during eight seasons in which he won his only two Super Bowls, often said.
Which raises a question: Is Parcells’ retirement as the Cowboys’ coach really more a “retirement.”
He’s said to have put out feelers about coming back to New Jersey to take the Giants’ general manager job that was filled from within by Jerry Reese. And there are expected to be a number of coaching vacancies after next season — New York’s Tom Coughlin, a Parcells disciple, could be one and so could Joe Gibbs, his longtime rival in Washington.
Young knew Parcells as well as anyone.
As the Giants’ general manager from 1979-97, he hired Parcells as an assistant twice — the second time breaking his own rule of “never hiring a guy who quits on me.” Then, when Ray Perkins quit as coach to succeed Bear Bryant at Alabama, Young gave Parcells his first NFL head coaching job, forging a sometimes turbulent relationship that brought the Giants their titles after the 1986 and 1990 seasons.
The Tuna (a sobriquet given him in 1980 by his New England linebacking corps) went on to coach the Patriots, Jets and Cowboys, moving a step backward at each stop. He got New England to the Super Bowl after the 1996 season and the Jets to the AFC title game two years later. But he was only 34-32 in four seasons in Dallas, losing the only two postseason games he was in.
Great coach or just good one?
Probably somewhere between.
His success with the Giants, for example, was partly luck.
How many Super Bowls would the Giants have won if Bum Phillips, then the coach in New Orleans, hadn’t used the first pick in the draft on running back George Rogers? The other 27 would have taken Taylor and the Giants, who had the second pick, got a future Hall of Famer without whom they may not have won a thing, Parcells or no Parcells.
He left the Giants after their Super Bowl win over Buffalo in January 1991. His health was poor and he was worn out by internal battles — some with Young but more with Tom Boisture, the director of player personnel.
That was because Parcells always thought he knew personnel better than he did. In 1990, when running back Rodney Hampton fell to the Giants with the 25th pick of the draft, Young and Boisture outvoted Parcells and took him over the Tuna’s choice, linebacker Darion Conner.
Hampton went on to become the Giants’ leading rusher until Tiki Barber broke his records. Conner, one of many linebackers coveted by the Tuna in his quest for “the next L.T.,” was never more than a journeyman linebacker.
But he could sure pick assistants.
The staff of that 1990 Super Bowl team included Coughlin, Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel, Al Groh, Charlie Weis and Ray Handley, all future NFL, major college coaches or both (Groh and Coughlin). Plus offensive coordinator Ron Ehrhardt, who had been head coach of the Patriots when Parcells was there.
He also was one of the game’s best teachers — a must for a successful NFL coach. But even his teaching was calculated.
He would often show up 10-15 minutes late for his daily media sessions, answer a few simplistic questions from TV reporters, then hold football class for 45 minutes or so for those who chose to stay. The quid-pro-quo: those sessions came at the same time the locker room was open, forcing participants to choose between talking to the Tuna or tracking down players who Parcells preferred to remain silent.
The dozens who sat through those sessions over the years, always came away with the same impression — they had learned more about Xs and Os from Parcells than from any NFL coach. And if he could do that with folks who rarely had played football beyond high school, he clearly could impart it to NFL players.
His approach to them — and to others who worked for him — was carrot and stick. One day he’d be their buddy, the next day he’d be all over them. He once got into a shouting match with Phil Simms after Simms had led the Giants to scores on their first four possessions but threw an incomplete pass on the fifth.
“We just like to chat sometimes,” Simms explained afterward.
One team official who worked with Parcells recalled recently that he’d pick a team employee to harass each day just to let him know who was boss.
It was random. One day it would be the equipment man, the next day the video guy, another day the trainer. Then he’d leave them alone — or even praise them — until it was “their day” again a couple of months later.
He also used senior players to impart his message to younger ones.
With the Giants of the mid-’80s, it was linebacker Harry Carson and defensive end George Martin, two veterans who had survived dreadful teams of the late ’70s. As Parcells moved around the league, it was often guys he brought in from his old teams — Pepper Johnson, a former Giants linebacker in New England; Richie Anderson, a former Jet, in Dallas.
No coincidence that both are now coaches: Johnson with Belichick in New England and Anderson with the Jets.
Why did he step down in good health?
Those close to him lately suggest Parcells was convinced that if he couldn’t turn around a team in three or four years, the players would tune him out and the results would be as they were in Dallas this season. A few good wins, some puzzling losses and nothing much better than mediocrity.
But give the communicator a year off — likely in a television studio near you — and who knows?
He’ll be 67 then.
Ready for a new challenge.
OPINION
By Dave Goldberg
Updated: 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
In 1979, Bill Parcells accepted a job to become linebackers coach of the New York Giants. He then backed out, persuaded by his wife and daughters to stay in Colorado, where had been head coach at Air Force.
A year later, he got the same job with the New England Patriots. A year after that, he became the Giants’ defensive coordinator, joining a rookie linebacker named Lawrence Taylor.
A quarter-century later, he has left football — or so he says.
“Bill can always tell you his game plan for the next three games. But he rarely can tell you what he’ll do the next day, let alone the next month or the next year,” the late George Young, Parcells’ boss during eight seasons in which he won his only two Super Bowls, often said.
Which raises a question: Is Parcells’ retirement as the Cowboys’ coach really more a “retirement.”
He’s said to have put out feelers about coming back to New Jersey to take the Giants’ general manager job that was filled from within by Jerry Reese. And there are expected to be a number of coaching vacancies after next season — New York’s Tom Coughlin, a Parcells disciple, could be one and so could Joe Gibbs, his longtime rival in Washington.
Young knew Parcells as well as anyone.
As the Giants’ general manager from 1979-97, he hired Parcells as an assistant twice — the second time breaking his own rule of “never hiring a guy who quits on me.” Then, when Ray Perkins quit as coach to succeed Bear Bryant at Alabama, Young gave Parcells his first NFL head coaching job, forging a sometimes turbulent relationship that brought the Giants their titles after the 1986 and 1990 seasons.
The Tuna (a sobriquet given him in 1980 by his New England linebacking corps) went on to coach the Patriots, Jets and Cowboys, moving a step backward at each stop. He got New England to the Super Bowl after the 1996 season and the Jets to the AFC title game two years later. But he was only 34-32 in four seasons in Dallas, losing the only two postseason games he was in.
Great coach or just good one?
Probably somewhere between.
His success with the Giants, for example, was partly luck.
How many Super Bowls would the Giants have won if Bum Phillips, then the coach in New Orleans, hadn’t used the first pick in the draft on running back George Rogers? The other 27 would have taken Taylor and the Giants, who had the second pick, got a future Hall of Famer without whom they may not have won a thing, Parcells or no Parcells.
He left the Giants after their Super Bowl win over Buffalo in January 1991. His health was poor and he was worn out by internal battles — some with Young but more with Tom Boisture, the director of player personnel.
That was because Parcells always thought he knew personnel better than he did. In 1990, when running back Rodney Hampton fell to the Giants with the 25th pick of the draft, Young and Boisture outvoted Parcells and took him over the Tuna’s choice, linebacker Darion Conner.
Hampton went on to become the Giants’ leading rusher until Tiki Barber broke his records. Conner, one of many linebackers coveted by the Tuna in his quest for “the next L.T.,” was never more than a journeyman linebacker.
But he could sure pick assistants.
The staff of that 1990 Super Bowl team included Coughlin, Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel, Al Groh, Charlie Weis and Ray Handley, all future NFL, major college coaches or both (Groh and Coughlin). Plus offensive coordinator Ron Ehrhardt, who had been head coach of the Patriots when Parcells was there.
He also was one of the game’s best teachers — a must for a successful NFL coach. But even his teaching was calculated.
He would often show up 10-15 minutes late for his daily media sessions, answer a few simplistic questions from TV reporters, then hold football class for 45 minutes or so for those who chose to stay. The quid-pro-quo: those sessions came at the same time the locker room was open, forcing participants to choose between talking to the Tuna or tracking down players who Parcells preferred to remain silent.
The dozens who sat through those sessions over the years, always came away with the same impression — they had learned more about Xs and Os from Parcells than from any NFL coach. And if he could do that with folks who rarely had played football beyond high school, he clearly could impart it to NFL players.
His approach to them — and to others who worked for him — was carrot and stick. One day he’d be their buddy, the next day he’d be all over them. He once got into a shouting match with Phil Simms after Simms had led the Giants to scores on their first four possessions but threw an incomplete pass on the fifth.
“We just like to chat sometimes,” Simms explained afterward.
One team official who worked with Parcells recalled recently that he’d pick a team employee to harass each day just to let him know who was boss.
It was random. One day it would be the equipment man, the next day the video guy, another day the trainer. Then he’d leave them alone — or even praise them — until it was “their day” again a couple of months later.
He also used senior players to impart his message to younger ones.
With the Giants of the mid-’80s, it was linebacker Harry Carson and defensive end George Martin, two veterans who had survived dreadful teams of the late ’70s. As Parcells moved around the league, it was often guys he brought in from his old teams — Pepper Johnson, a former Giants linebacker in New England; Richie Anderson, a former Jet, in Dallas.
No coincidence that both are now coaches: Johnson with Belichick in New England and Anderson with the Jets.
Why did he step down in good health?
Those close to him lately suggest Parcells was convinced that if he couldn’t turn around a team in three or four years, the players would tune him out and the results would be as they were in Dallas this season. A few good wins, some puzzling losses and nothing much better than mediocrity.
But give the communicator a year off — likely in a television studio near you — and who knows?
He’ll be 67 then.
Ready for a new challenge.
posted by The Gryphon at 7:36 PM
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