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Bill Parcells
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I half expect that if you give Bill Parcells a roster full of tough-as-nails rugby
players, he could turn them into a competitive pro football team in time. I jest, of
course. Just trying to make a point. Quite simply, the man has the knack. It always seemed
as though Parcells could get more from his resources than anyone else.
Parcells recently gave up his coaching reins (if you believe he has stepped off the
coaching carousel for good), and that makes now a good time to assess just what made him
so incredibly successful over the years. What was it that allowed Parcells to lead the
Giants to two Super Bowl titles, the Patriots to a Super Bowl appearance and the Jets to
Super Bowl contender status? A story comes to mind. A very small story. A very recent
story.
I was covering the Jets-Dolphins game last month. Parcells’ Jets, whose season had
long since been devastated by Vinny Testaverde’s injury and who had nothing to play
for but pride, had just beaten a Dolphins squad that had everything to play for. Parcells
had just finished his postgame press conference, and he was in a hurry to get his team on
the flight home for what would be a short week. As Parcells entered the Jets’ locker
room, one of his players was walking by. To my eyes, the player was moving at a
respectable pace. Parcells saw something different. He barked out but a few words for the
player to get a move on. The player responded as if firecrackers had just exploded at his
feet, taking off so fast that I thought he would go skidding into the wall well off into
the distance. It was the way you’d imagine a lowly private reacting to his gruff
drill sergeant.
Parcells always had his teams marching to his tune. Marching to his pace. Marching to
victory. Prior to Super Bowl XXXI, when Parcells was coaching the Patriots, LB Ted Johnson
said, "He sets the standard. I look at him, and if he’s in a bad mood, I’m
going to be in a bad mood. If he’s in a good mood, I’m going to be in a good
mood. He sets the tone for the trip."
He certainly did prior to that Super Bowl appearance. The story goes that before the
Patriots took off for New Orleans, site of the big game, a few players showed up late when
the team was to meet for its flight. They were reprimanded. Loudly.
"He wanted to let guys know he was serious about this trip," Johnson said.
"I saw guys sitting up in their chairs, so I thought he made his point."
Parcells was always making a point. Often loudly. Other times quietly. Almost always
effectively. Consider the comments from a couple of Johnson’s teammates as Super Bowl
XXXI drew near.
FB Keith Byars: "He knows what to say to a player at the right time. Whether he
needs to give you a kind word, whether you need one or don’t need one, or a swift
kick in the behind. He can administer both of them at the proper time. He was a perfect
mixture of the two. He has great balance. He’s the same throughout the whole roster
from top to bottom. He treats everyone the same. He’s constantly on your case and
constantly patting you on the back. … He keeps you constantly thinking and keeps you
on your toes. He’s keeping you sharp. He does not let you get stale or
complacent."
OG William Roberts: "Some days he tells you he loves you; other days he tells you
that you’ll be cut if you don’t shape up. You know he’s playing you, but he
gets the best out of you."
Parcells’ approach was not for every player. Either you got with the program, or
you ended up playing for another program. Those who bought into the program with gusto
became "Parcells guys." A perfect example is current Jet Ray Lucas, a former
special-teams performer who fought his way into the starting lineup as a quarterback this
season after Testaverde got hurt and Rick Mirer once again proved ineffective. Lucas
became a "Parcells guy." When asked last month how a player works his way into
that category, Lucas said, "Probably because he told me to do something, you
don’t ask questions, and then you kill yourself trying, even if you can’t do it.
If you put 150 percent behind it, he kind of respects that."
The more players a coach has on his roster who have this kind of run-through-a-wall
attitude, the more likely the team is to have success. Parcells inspired this sort of
mentality more than most. It was why you didn’t see any quit in his teams. This
year’s Jets lost Testaverde for the rest of the year in the first game of the season
and got off to a dismal 1-6 start in what was supposed to be a Super Bowl-contending
campaign. Miraculously, they rebounded to salvage an 8-8 record. By the end of the season,
it was a team nobody wanted to face.
It was a team that never quit. It was a team that battled, scratched and clawed. It was
a team that survived, then thrived. It was a team that was the spitting image of its head
coach.
"It’s his mentality and faith and confidence and desire not to give up,"
Jets RB Curtis Martin said. "Anytime you have a leader like that, it trickles down to
everyone else. You expect to hear him say negative things, and he says, ‘I believe we
can do this, and we’ve done it before.’
"He lifted us up with his words and his leadership."
It was just like Parcells to throw a curve ball, to bob and weave, to zig when you
thought he would zag. Just when you thought you had him pigeonholed as a surly taskmaster,
he fooled you and inspired with a gentle, positive nudge.
Indeed, flexibility was a key to Parcells’ success. His rosters were not limited
to overachievers who kept their mouths shut and quietly blended into the background while
the coach got all of the credit.
With the Giants, Parcells’ biggest star was LB Lawrence Taylor — a hellion
most coaches might have had trouble keeping under control. With the Patriots, WR Terry
Glenn was drafted over Parcells’ objections. Glenn’s lack of toughness prompted
Parcells to refer to the receiver as "she," yet Parcells coaxed a 90-catch year
out of him during their Super Bowl season together. With the Jets, you might not think
mouthy, trash-talking Keyshawn Johnson would get the Parcells stamp of approval, yet
Johnson has thrived under Parcells.
Football experts often wonder how coaching legend Vince Lombardi would fare in
today’s NFL. My guess is that Lombardi would still be demanding and in your face, but
that he would also adjust to the times.
In other words, he’d be an awful lot like Parcells. |
