Parcells won't be gone for long
MAY 22, 2000

Fan's View

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Parcells walked away from coaching after last season.
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Today, sports fan Steve Schindler explains why Bill Parcells’ retirement from coaching won’t last very long.

Yes, we've heard all the words before. For example, "I'm tired of the old grind. . . . These players aren't like the ones I coached 15 years ago. . . . I doubt if I'll ever coach another team again."

They all say that right after they take that first step toward the golden horizon of NFL coaching retirement.

They say that as they head home to see what has come up on their fax machines. A million-dollar network broadcasting offer here, a multi-year offer as the old team's GM there. A national motel chain calling with a commercial offer this way, a chance to plug some cheesy product with a bunch of other retired sports geezers behind door No. 3. You just never know what's going to come up!

The Big Tuna, Bill Parcells, newly retired head coach of the New York Jets, says all of the right words. He sounds like he has retired from coaching. I actually feel that he doesn't think he wants to be on the NFL sidelines ever again. But he will be.

Even after the qualified success Tuna had leading an injury-riddled Jets team to an 8-8 record, he took the retirement road at season's end. Even though friends said he had seemed invigorated by the team winning the last four games of the season, he was tired and frustrated. And for the moment, he wanted out.

For now, Parcells has decided to lay aside all of the big-buck offers being thrown at him by ABC, FOX and others. He opted for the relative safety of helping to oversee the Jets’ transition into a new regime under a new owner and a new coach, his longtime assistant Al Groh. This keeps him very close to the game he is sick and tired of.

So far, Parcells has had a ball. He traded his old whipping boy Keyshawn Johnson to Tampa Bay, and he got to help his old buddy Al harvest an NFL record four first-round draft picks in April. For somebody not known for being the best of personnel guys, poor tired Bill seemed to do all right for himself and the team he doesn't want to coach anymore.

The official story line is that Groh is in control. Tuna even made a big deal about calling him to make sure it was OK if he attended a recent mini-camp. But perception around the team is that Bill is still very much the boss in Jetland.

Coaching is in Parcells' blood. He is one of the best the game ever has seen. He won two Super Bowls with the Giants and felt he had the team to compete for one last year with the Jets. He lost that feeling when starting quarterback Vinny Testaverde went down with a season-ending injury in the opening game.

Big Bill is a Hall of Fame football coach. Much like many of those who have come back before him, he lives for life's NFL challenges. Coaching is in his blood. It's in his soul like it was for the indomitable Vince Lombardi, the Philadelphia dynamo Dick Vermeil and Mike Ditka of 'Da Bears.

Lombardi, the Wisconsin football god, won everything his way at Green Bay. He left the Packers’ sideline, sick and tired and determined to relax in a cushy front office job. Well, he lasted about one season before realizing he was bored out of his mind and couldn't take it anymore. As sick as he was (he later was diagnosed with cancer), he came back and led the Washington Redskins to their first winning season in 14 years.

Vermeil, once considered one of the new guard of NFL coaches, slept on a cot at the office, determined to do everything he could to lead his team to victory. Well, he did. He led two teams to the Super Bowl, but there were 19 years between the two. The first resulted in an Eagle loss in '81, and Vermeil left the game as a tragic burnout victim.

That loss grated on him so badly that he came back in 1997 just to prove he could do it. He did, leading the St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl 34 at the age of 63.

Ditka is one of only two men to win a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach and head coach. He also is one of only four head coaches in NFL history to win 100 games in only 10 seasons. He coached 'Da Bears to a Super Bowl victory in '86 and retired in '92, never to coach again. It was bad for his health, he said.

Well, Iron Mike did a stint with NBC for five years before accepting a head coaching job with the lowly New Orleans Saints in 1997. Three seasons later, he was 15-33 and fit to be tied. Some of that lovable old Ditka was peeking out beneath the surface when the Saints let him go. He swore then that he never would coach again. Sure. We believe him this time.

Parcells is just like these guys. He won't be able to sit still in the front office or the broadcast booth for long. He elevates the quality of everyone around him. He can take a mediocre bunch of guys and take them to a higher level. He knows that, and he loves it.

Parcells has admitted since leaving that his heart is still in the game, and he didn't mean that he loves all that front office paperwork. Some of his close friends have confided that they aren't sure he is out of coaching for good. Heck, Tuna is only 58 years old. That's young for a comeback head coach.

It won't take long. Parcells' inner being soon will be missing the heat prostration of a long, brutal training camp. His heart will long for the joy of reaming huge 350-pound linemen for missed assignments. His soul will cry out to send in the kicking team to tack on one more field goal in a lopsided affair against the Patriots.

It won't take long. Believe me. Parcells will be back.

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