Parcells stands by himself among coaches

By By Will Bardwell / sports writer
Jan. 29, 2004
How quickly people have forgotten about Bill Parcells.
In the week and a half since New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick led his team to its second Super Bowl in three years, talk show hosts and ESPN analysts have been falling all over themselves for Belichick. Robbing Parcells of the NFL's Coach of the Year award must not have been enough, I guess. Now the experts want to crown Belichick as Parcells' superior.
Give me a freaking break.
I'm not trying to undermine what Belichick has accomplished with the Patriots. He's a great schemer, a great X's and O's guy, and has managed to hold together a very talented team no easy feat in today's free agent market.
But in all fairness to Belichick, the only time his name belongs in the same breath as Parcells is to explain that Belichick once worked for Parcells.
Bill Parcells is the greatest football coach of my lifetime. The same is true for anyone born after Vince Lombardi's retirement. He has an uncommon ability to motivate, an almost fanatical devotion to winning, and has managed to instill that in more than a few people over the years. Parcells is a winner, and has won everywhere he's gone.
Few people remember how bad the Giants were before Parcells took over as their head coach in 1983. New York had enjoyed just one winning season over the past 10 years. After two seasons under Parcells, the Giants were in the playoffs. In his last six years in New York, he won at least 10 games in five of them.
It was more of the same with the Patriots and the Jets. Parcells inherited a 2-14 New England team and took them to the playoffs in his second season. In his fourth season with the Patriots, they went to the Super Bowl.
The Jets were coming off a 1-15 season when Parcells got there in 1997. In his first year, they were 9-7. A year later, they were 12-4 and went to the AFC championship game. In fact, the Tuna became only the second coach ever to take a one-win team to the playoffs in his second year. The other? Vince Lombardi.
And don't forget this season's miracle turnaround in Dallas. The Cowboys were 5-11 before Parcells and as far as 5-11 teams go, they were a really shabby 5-11 team.
With virtually no personnel changes, Parcells turned Dallas into a 10-6 playoff team that won seven of eight at one point. The Cowboys became the NFL's top defense. Heck, Parcells even managed to turn Quincy Carter into a very good quarterback. I doubt Belichick could've pulled off a similar performance.
Parcells has always been obsessive about his quarterbacks. My favorite story about the Tuna is one that Phil Simms told last year during a TV interview. While Parcells was Simms' coach with the Giants, he would stand behind his young quarterback in practice every day. Half a second after the ball was snapped, Parcells would start screaming at Simms. "THROW IT! THROW IT!"
Parcells chewed on Simms every day. As soon as Simms had perfected one thing, Parcells found something else to scream about. One day, though, Parcells ripped into the Giants' offensive linemen. They weren't moving their feet fast enough, they weren't coming off the ball hard enough, they weren't sticking with their blocks. Parcells was furious. Simms was just glad someone else was getting chewed out for once.
Finally, Parcells finished listing his complaints for the offensive linemen. He turned around, pointed to Simms, and said, "And it's your fault."
Dumbfounded, Simms asked how in the world he could be responsible for his linemen's laziness.
"If you weren't so buddy-buddy with these guys," Parcells said, "and if you would stop being their friend and start being their leader, they would fear you, they would respect you, and they would never let anyone hit you."
Simms went on to win two Super Bowls under Parcells.
And while Tom Brady is on the cusp of doing the same for his coach, Belichick's record doesn't compare to Parcells' resume. Belichick produced a playoff team just twice before this season, and while in Cleveland, he posted four losing seasons in five years. For that matter, this season is just the third in Belichick's nine years as a head coach in which he's produced a 10-win season. Of the Tuna's 16 campaigns, nine of them have been 10-win seasons.
Belichick didn't even have a winning career record as a head coach until November.
Making it to the Super Bowl twice in three years is quite an accomplishment, and Belichick has certainly done his part in making it happen. He's a very good football coach. One day, he may be looked upon as one of the greats.
But Bill Parcells already is.