Parcells

by Bill Parcells

  “Jerry doesn’t have a football philosophy,” Parcells says, “but I like what he does. He tries to get all the information he can. He’s not a talent evaluator. Now, some days he thinks he is. Some days I think I’m an oilman, but I’m not. He’s an oilman.” Still, if the oilman expressed reservations about one of Bill’s personnel requests, the head coach reacted with openness to the owner’s counterargument. Whenever Bill remained steadfast, Jerry held a roundtable of his front-office brass, and the group, including Parcells, discussed all aspects of the potential acquisition before Dallas pursued it. In rare instances Jerry and Bill reached an impasse.

  “If there was a little flare-up,” Larry Lacewell says, “Stephen Jones would go in and talk to both of ’em, and settle ’em down. And he did a marvelous job of that.” Knowing this, Bill sometimes bounced ideas off Stephen first, an approach that facilitated requests to the ultimate boss.

  The 2003 draft in late April illustrated the early compatibility of the dictatorial partners. Despite Jerry Jones’s retaining final approval, the Cowboys’ selections reflected Bill Parcells’s emphasis on defense and power running. The Cowboys selected cornerback Terence Newman of Kansas State in the first round, center Al Johnson via Wisconsin in the second, tight end Jason Witten of Tennessee in the third, and linebacker Bradie James via Louisiana State in the fourth. During down moments in the late rounds, Bill and Jerry engaged in good-natured betting: If a certain prospect made the roster, Jerry would owe Bill two trips on the owner’s private jet; if not, Parcells needed to cede a fraction of his big salary.

  “Bill never encroached on Jerry’s position as the owner, president, and general manager,” recalls Jim Garrett, a Cowboys scout from 1987 to 2004, whose son Jason became the team’s head coach in 2010. “Bill was kind and considerate to Jerry. If there was something controversial Bill needed to talk about, he whispered it to Jerry. It was a great combination.”

  Before the draft, Parcells had dyed his graying hair platinum blond. And as if reimagining the Cowboys based on bygone glories, he envisioned Jason Witten being a major contributor like Mark Bavaro with Big Blue and Ben Coates in New England. Jason Witten would end up being among the best draft picks in Cowboys history, a perennial Pro Bowler, smashing virtually all the franchise’s records at tight end. Terence Newman would turn into a top NFL cornerback, while Bradie James would develop into a tackling machine and playmaker.

  For the late rounds of the 2003 draft, Sean Payton lobbied the Cowboys to select a shifty, quick-trigger quarterback named Tony Romo from his alma mater, Eastern Illinois. While breaking some of Payton’s school records, Romo had earned the Walter Payton Award for being the top player in Division I-AA. Even as Dallas used sixth-round picks on defensive back B. J. Tucker (Wisconsin) and wideout Zuriel Smith (Hampton), Payton assured Romo by telephone of the Cowboys’ interest. Jerry and Bill, though, used their final, seventh-round pick on guard Justin Bates (Colorado), leaving Romo undrafted.

  Mike Shanahan’s Broncos were among several teams bent on signing the six-two, 235-pound gunslinger as a free agent. Like Payton, Shanahan had played quarterback at Eastern Illinois, but his college career came to an end as sudden as it was dramatic. Shanahan almost died during a 1972 practice after a linebacker’s spearing tackle ruptured his kidneys. Shanahan’s heart reportedly stopped for thirty seconds as the team summoned a priest to read last rites.

  On May 1, 2003, Mike Shanahan offered Tony Romo the biggest signing bonus, $25,000, but Payton convinced his fellow alum to join the Cowboys for $15,000, stressing the opportunity offered by the team’s unproven quarterbacks. Romo also felt a kinship with Payton, who still held several Eastern Illinois records, including 509 passing yards in one game. Payton had graduated in 1987 before joining the Chicago Bruisers of the Arena Football League in its inaugural season. His only NFL experience had come as a replacement player for the Bears during the 1987 strike. In three games, Payton completed 8 of 23 for 79 yards and produced a rating of 27.3, numbers that Tony Romo intended to far exceed.

  During rookie minicamp, Parcells began employing the methods that had proven so effective in eradicating losing cultures at his previous stops. He instructed the Cowboys’ equipment manager to remove the blue stars from player helmets, and told the newbies that they would have to earn the storied logo. If a rookie failed to correctly answer a random question about strategy, the group was forced to run sprints. Parcells instituted new rules that included banning eating and cell phone use in the locker room, while decorating its white cinder-block walls with some of his maxims.

  DON’T CONFUSE ROUTINE WITH COMMITMENT.

  BLAME NOBODY, EXPECT NOTHING, DO SOMETHING.

  THERE ARE MANY EXIT DOORS IN PRO FOOTBALL.

  DON’T TAKE THEM.

  LOSING WILL TAKE A LITTLE FROM YOUR CREDIBILITY,

  BUT QUITTING WILL DESTROY IT.

  DUMB PLAYERS DO DUMB THINGS. SMART PLAYERS

  VERY SELDOM DO DUMB THINGS.

  LOSERS ASSEMBLE IN LITTLE GROUPS, AND BITCH ABOUT

  THE COACHES AND THE SYSTEM AND OTHER PLAYERS IN

  OTHER LITTLE GROUPS. WINNERS ASSEMBLE AS A TEAM.

  After spotting an offensive lineman devouring pizza in the trainer’s room, Parcells also banned eating there. He had already lowered the air-conditioning to 55 degrees.

  Dave Campo hadn’t pushed his players to attend off-season voluntary workouts, out of concern that they would complain to the players association, so a slew of key Cowboys had typically stayed away. Parcells, on the other hand, stressed the importance of the program, especially for conditioning. When necessary, he held one-on-one meetings with players to extract assurances that they would attend, and for the first time in recent memory, few players skipped the voluntary sessions.

  The team weight room overlooked the gridiron, and its tinted windows eliminated the ability to see in from outside. Parcells frequently exploited the vantage to observe which players were doing extra work on the gridiron. When the head coach was away from Valley Ranch, he often telephoned strength-and-conditioning coach Joe Juraszek for updates. Parcells also persuaded Jerry Jones to build a new $4 million indoor practice facility instead of continuing to use a local high school’s bubble whenever the weather turned inclement.

  By the start of training camp in San Antonio’s Alamodome, players had smartened up about their new leader’s premium on toughness and durability. Once during practice a defensive player fell on the back of left tackle Flozell Adams’s legs. Parcells only glanced at the prone offensive lineman before walking past him to conduct the next drill. Unless a fallen player had suffered a serious injury, Parcells wanted the player out of the way as soon as possible so that the session went uninterrupted.

  Just in case such ruthlessness failed to send a message, Parcells cut the first two Cowboys to report injuries at the opening of camp. Although they were both backups, the move reiterated the value he placed on sturdy, reliable athletes, and when the Texans and Cowboys scrimmaged on August 3 in San Antonio, zero Cowboys were listed as injured, compared to eleven for Houston. Perhaps the most striking difference from the previous regime could be found in the trainer’s room. Few players showed up there, whereas in 2002 the cozy room had bustled with athletes deemed too hurt to practice.

  Parcells placed a stranglehold on almost every aspect of his team. He persuaded one Cowboys official who administered drug tests on players to give him a heads-up about any positive results. Circumventing the protocol of the collective bargaining agreement, Parcells said to the official, “If one of these guys is dirty, I want to know right away.”

  The test administrator replied, “Don’t worry about it. You’ll know.”

  Parcells admits now, “Then I would go after their asses. They’d say, ‘Well, I’m going to the players association.’ I said: ‘Go ahead. I’m going to the newspapers, and telling them I’ve got a pothead on my team who’s crying about his civil rights. Who do you think they’re going to side with? Me or you? I’m not smokin
g the dope. You are.’ ”

  By the end of camp Quincy Carter beat out Chad Hutchinson to enter the season as Dallas’s starting quarterback for the third straight time. Tony Romo was behind Carter and Hutchinson on the depth chart, but Parcells’s stream of motivational zingers indicated his recognition of the undrafted quarterback’s potential. One time Parcells told Romo, “You’re never going to get it. You know what you are, Romo? You’re a ball in high grass.”

  Parcells eagerly awaited the rookie’s request for an explanation.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Lost.”

  Bill Parcells lost his first official league game as Cowboys coach, 27–13, versus Atlanta at Texas Stadium after a poor second half, especially from kicker Billy Cundiff. Dallas’s regular-season opener particularly galled Parcells because it represented the worst indictment of a coach: succumbing to an opponent with inferior personnel. His lifetime body of work reflected the opposite tendency, and he took pride in that.

  A chance for redemption came on Monday Night Football against Big Blue at the Meadowlands. The September 15 affair marked Parcells’s first return to Giants Stadium since he had guided Gang Green there in 1999. Parcells downplayed that story line, noting his multiple appearances at the Meadowlands since departing the Giants. Nevertheless, his homecoming as head coach of the despised Cowboys overshadowed Sean Payton’s return after being demoted and leaving Big Blue. Dallas had lost 26 of its previous 32 road games, whereas Payton’s former club looked poised for a playoff return after winning its season opener, 21–13, versus St. Louis. Parcells told his team that it faced one of the NFL’s most difficult challenges: a road game on Monday night versus a formidable opponent.

  The Cowboys stayed over at the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights hotel. About four hours before the 9 p.m. kickoff, he took some of his former Giants players to Bischoff’s ice-cream parlor in Teaneck, where Ida had often brought him on family outings. Later, when Parcells settled into the visitors’ locker room at Giants Stadium, a parade of Big Blue royalty swung by the coaches section to greet him, including Harry Carson, Wellington Mara, Phil Simms, and Lawrence Taylor. A few feet away Cowboys coaches watched the exchanges, better appreciating the impact their boss had made on Big Blue.

  Parcells also received a warm reception from most of the 78,907 spectators. His team seized a 20–7 lead before collapsing, to the home crowd’s delight. Matt Bryant’s 30-yard field goal gave Big Blue its first lead, 32–29, with only 11 seconds left to play. Jim Fassel, however, had decided against running another offensive play before Bryant’s apparent game winner, so instead of only one tick being left on the clock, the Cowboys possessed 10 extra seconds to attempt a miracle.

  Bryant’s kickoff boomed toward a coffin corner of Dallas’s end zone, but showing poise, rookie returner Zuriel Smith let the pigskin hit the ground; it tumbled out of bounds less than two yards short of the end zone. The nervy decision gave Dallas a last-gasp opportunity to position itself for a field goal. By rule, the ball was placed on Dallas’s 40-yard line.

  With time for just one offensive snap, Parcells called for a shotgun play involving three receivers bunched on the right side. Wideout Antonio Bryant lined up on the opposite end, where he could avoid being jammed while facing Big Blue’s zone defense. After sprinting several yards downfield, Bryant cut left toward the sideline, creating an oh-so-slight separation. Quincy Carter darted a 26-yard pass that Bryant snagged, tiptoeing before falling out of bounds. The scintillating play positioned Dallas for a 52-yard field-goal attempt, and Billy Cundiff’s kick sailed through the uprights, tying the game as Parcells punched the air.

  During overtime, Dan Campbell, an ex–Giants tight end whom Parcells had signed based on Sean Payton’s recommendation, snagged a 23-yard pass to set up a 25-yard field-goal attempt. Dallas triumphed as Cundiff made his seventh kick of the contest.

  In the coaches’ locker room following the 35–32 thriller, Bill Parcells smiled at Sean Payton. “I know this was especially big for you.” But several minutes later, as the Cowboys bus pulled out of a parking lot at Giants Stadium, Payton noticed Parcells scowling.

  “What’s wrong, Coach?”

  Parcells snarled, “My relatives didn’t use some of the fifteen tickets I left.”

  “Coach, we just beat the Giants.”

  “That’s the last time I get them goddamn tickets! Don’t they know I paid for them?!”

  The Cowboys received a bye week before returning to Giants Stadium on September 28 to face the 0-3 Jets. The NFL seemed to be displaying a wicked sense of humor by having Parcells play two straight games at the Meadowlands. Although Gang Green fans cheered him before the 4:15 p.m. kickoff, their reaction lacked the exuberance of Big Blue supporters two weeks earlier: a segment of Jets Nation remained upset that Parcells had quit as coach after the 1999 season. His return against Gang Green also lacked the drama of the previous week as the Cowboys triumphed 17–6, with Troy Hambrick rushing for 127 yards. By defeating two of his former teams in back-to-back games, Parcells gave Dallas its best start in four seasons.

  The flight from New York reached Dallas around 3 a.m. central time, but Parcells told his staff to be at Valley Ranch by 6 a.m. David Lee took a two-hour nap at home before arriving at Cowboys headquarters around 5:30 a.m. With some time to spare, Lee sat in his office and opened the newspaper’s sports section. Meanwhile, Parcells entered the building and walked down the hall. Noticing signs of life, he looked into Lee’s office.

  Parcells screamed, “You better get your ass in gear, and put your mind on next week’s opponents! Start breaking down Arizona right now!” His heart racing, the rookie NFL coach quickly closed the newspaper as Parcells continued walking down the hall. Though angered by the outburst, Lee didn’t dare point out that he had arrived earlier than anyone else—including the head coach!

  Lee recalls, “He couldn’t enjoy those two wins because he was so concerned about us losing our focus. I hadn’t been in pro football very long, and he was sending a message: you don’t have time in this league to enjoy your successes. You better get ready for the next game ’cause everybody in this league competes. It’s so hard to get a win.”

  • • •

  With a vastly improved defense and solid if unspectacular quarterbacking from Quincy Carter, Dallas won five straight to take a surprising lead in the NFC East at 5-1. Given his inherited personnel, including multiple undersized linebackers, Bill Parcells kept the team’s 4-3 defense instead of immediately installing his cherished 3-4, designed for bigger, taller linebackers. Mike Zimmer’s unit, showcasing a splendid back seven, regularly battered quarterbacks and forced turnovers, and midway through the season Dallas’s defense led the league in fewest yards allowed. The stingy unit starred nose tackle La’Roi Glover, free safety Roy Williams, and two linebackers who stood five-eleven or under: Dexter Coakley and Dat Nguyen.

  Meanwhile, Jerry Jones remained in the background more than he had at any time since purchasing the franchise. He had put an end to his habit of attending team meetings, giving locker-room speeches, and viewing game film with players. The owner occasionally watched film with Parcells, but only at the head coach’s convenience. Jones continued strolling “my sidelines,” though much less than in the past. His most conspicuous involvement took place in the locker room, where he occasionally gave pep talks to individual players.

  After the Cowboys’ winning streak ended with an October 26 loss against Tampa Bay, they defeated Washington and then Buffalo, limiting both opponents to a total of 10 points. Dallas improved to 7-2 as Parcells entered his final game of the season against one of his former teams. Bill Belichick’s Patriots, also at 7-2, awaited the Cowboys at Foxboro with a five-game winning streak.

  Robert Kraft’s risky decision three years earlier, trading draft picks to Parcells’s Jets for Belichick’s services, was paying off. Belichick had guided New England to its first Super Bowl title on February 3, 2002, upsetting the St. Louis Rams, 20–17, at the Louisian
a Superdome. Game MVP went to quarterback Tom Brady, a sixth-round pick in 2000 who had thrived after replacing a seriously injured Drew Bledsoe early in the 2002 season. Belichick’s staff included offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, and defensive backs coach Eric Mangini, while Parcells’s son-in-law Scott Pioli oversaw the personnel department.

  Following Super Bowl XXXVI, Parcells had telephoned Belichick to offer congratulations. However, the call lasted less than a minute, a sign of the lingering feelings from their divorce involving Gang Green. The previous time the football connoisseurs had crossed paths was in late March 2003, at the NFL owners meeting in Phoenix, where the new Cowboys leader and his ex-lieutenant exchanged polite though stilted remarks. Adding to the hype about the upcoming game, the two men were both Coach of the Year candidates. They hadn’t been on the same gridiron since Belichick’s shocking resignation as “HC of the NYJ.”

  Several days preceding the November 16 showdown, Belichick instructed his players to avoid being distracted by the media’s focus on the estranged coaches. “We’re both assholes. We started coaching together when some of you were in diapers. The last time we coached together was five years ago. Think about how much has changed in the last five years.” He added, “Don’t get into Belichick versus Parcells. If you want the easy way out, tell them I won’t let you comment.” Belichick also stressed that his club was facing a daunting opponent with all of Parcells’s trademarks: along with a strong defense, Dallas ran the ball substantially more than most teams, and dominated time of possession.

  Parcells addressed his players about the hype, too, telling them to concentrate on the enormous task at hand: traveling to Foxboro and attempting to halt New England’s hot streak.