Good Parcells and Jones article

[Chicago JK]

I am soooo pumped that the Tuna is in town. I am not expecting an improvement in wins this season, but my smile hasn't left my face for months. I am telling all my non Cowboy fans to give me all their trash this season, and I am just going to sit back and take it. Bill will have this team back in the thick of things quicker than most think. It won't be this year, but you will see a disciplined, in-shape team that won't beat themselves by the middle of the year. Just wait until they add more talent and let the young talent mature. Watch out league.

Plus, Parcells daily press conferences at 11:30 ET are pure genius. It is like a PhD in football
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http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/p.../20030815.html

Dallas star: Parcells will lead Cowboys back

August 15, 2003 Print it


You should see the way new pals Bill Parcells and Jerry Jones have been carrying on these past few months. They sit around telling each other football stories, yapping away and just having a grand time. It is such an unlikely scene, a minefield of clashing egos and unfettered ambition driven by deliciously bombastic personalities. But they already have stumbled upon unexpected peaceful ground, a land of tales about coaches and players and games from a sport they both so dearly embrace.

That they are together at this point in their lives, aging bulls with more history than time on their sides, is remarkable. It has been so easy to view their relationship as unworkable, a sideshow that never would emerge as a successful main act. But surprisingly, Parcells and Jones have grown to like each other. They quickly found a bond -- a passion for football that consumes them almost to the point of absurdity. And their shared enjoyment of a good yarn became a starting point for the peacock dance that accompanies every new romance.

Parcells has told friends that Jones is different than he expected, that it has been a lot easier than he anticipated to talk to him and enjoy his company. If Parcells came to Dallas with a built-in disdain for all things Jones and the Cowboys -- "After all," he says, "for years it was the Dallas (bleeping) Cowboys" -- that attitude at least has been modified, if not erased by Jones' hearty focus on the game.

He is much more of a football guy than Parcells had projected. And being a football guy is essential for any kind of standing within the Parcells value system. Those are the men he respects, not the wannabes he dismisses with disgust.

"We are of the same generation, you know," says the almost-62 Parcells about his boss, who is 60. "I find that we know about a lot of the same players, the same teams. I can talk about something from the past and Jerry is right there with me. Same when he tells me stuff. It's been fun to sit with him."

This doesn't mean Parcells agrees with all of Jones' work in Dallas. He has seen enough of his current Cowboys to know otherwise; these are Jones' players, and not enough of them are championship caliber.

But what has transpired in the months since the shocking hire will make it possible for Parcells to reshape the roster in a peaceful way. Instead of cutting a wide and quick swath through the franchise -- out with the young, shaky quarterbacks, in with a veteran leader; out with the running backs, in with, oh, Stephen Davis -- Parcells has reflected his unexpected respect for Jones by doing more holding than removing, by choosing to go through a training camp, and possibly a season, before delivering a final evaluation on the players he inherited. It is a gesture Jones appreciates; he is ultra-sensitive about his role as a personnel man, and Parcells has done nothing to embarrass him or diminish Jones' efforts in that area.

If he had his druthers, Parcells would bring in his own personnel guru, someone who understood thoroughly the type of player he wants for each position, someone like Jets super scout Dick Haley. But that, too, is a sensitive area, and it has not happened, at least not for this season. Parcells also will run a defensive scheme more akin to Tampa Bay's cover 2 than his own philosophy -- and that includes using smallish linebackers instead of his much-preferred Lawrence Taylor-sized athletes. It's a nod to Jones' wish not to break up a defense that should be the strength of the team.

The Cowboys will be back. Not this year, but soon. And Parcells won't be the only reason. Until Jones finally acknowledged his way wasn't working, that life as he had painstakingly constructed it at Valley Ranch had to be altered dramatically -- even if it meant reduced input from him -- the Cowboys had no hope of resurrection. This is not a lip-service gesture by him, with an accompanying desire to obstruct Parcells as soon as glitches develop. Jones is a great enabler, which Parcells quickly has discovered; he has shown he is willing to spend generously to win.

Jones has worried forever about his football image; his hang-up over receiving proper credit for, among other things, his role in shaping rosters fostered his breakup with Jimmy Johnson. But now he says he is willing to co-partner with Parcells on personnel choices -- or pull back even more. "I can't imagine a situation when I wouldn't defer to Bill's wishes when it comes to players," says Jones. "When you come right down to it, this represents a change in philosophy for me. A deliberate change, might I add. I want to win that badly."

Parcells could say the same thing. He is willing to share thoughts with an owner instead of acting as if the owner were a boob (as he did with the Patriots' Robert Kraft) or having only occasional interaction (as was the case with the Jets' Leonard Hess). Jones hasn't been exiled to the Sahara for a year's vacation. He still attends practices, still sits in on personnel meetings, still spends time watching tape with coaches. He and his son, Stephen, the Cowboys' executive vice president of player personnel, still negotiate contracts and sign free agents. Those were among the many functions Parcells directed with the Jets before stepping down as coach after the 1999 season.

During this training camp, and certainly at points during the fall, Parcells will be everything he has always been -- a control freak, a sharp-tongued bully with a cruel needle, a relentless seeker of perfection. Doubtless, Jones won't be exempt from Parcells' sweeping shadow of rudeness and nastiness. But Jones understands that in bringing Parcells to Dallas, he has to accept the entire complex package, including the annoying confrontational parts, if his franchise is to receive the infusion of energy it sorely needs.

So he is willing to absorb the blows that are inevitably generated in any close brush with Parcells. The critics of this hiring -- and they encompass much of the NFL -- are convinced that the immense pride of these men will cause the situation to unravel, that neither ultimately will bend enough to allow for even a hint of compromise.

But that's not what will happen.

If Jones senses weakness in his coaches, he intrudes. And that begins the mechanism of failure. "He wants someone who will stand up to him, that he can't bully," says Brian Baldinger, a former Cowboy and a Sporting News Radio and Fox analyst. "He respects a person who is strong like him. Jimmy Johnson was like that, and that is what made their relationship work for so long. Jerry will not bully Bill, you can believe that."

Instead, it is clear both men need each other at this juncture of their careers. Jones provided Parcells with financial security that had deteriorated after his divorce, and he also gave him one of the most visible forums in all of sports to demonstrate again his coaching genius. Parcells brought Jones the credibility that gradually has evaporated in Dallas in the seven years since the Cowboys' last Super Bowl win, climaxed by last season's third straight 5-11 embarrassment of turnovers, penalties and internal unhappiness. We all expect the Cowboys under Parcells to stop this losing silliness; that's how much respect he generates. And Parcells represents hope for the Cowboys that they again will become title contenders, a notion that seemed ridiculous at the end of the 2002 schedule.

"They've told me that if they were 45 starting this, there might have been a problem making this work," says Stephen Jones. "I think they have learned from the past. It is really interesting to see them together. They both can be so charming. And funny." And he laughs, thinking of the two men, telling stories.

"I don't believe having total control is an issue for either guy anymore," says analyst Joe Theismann. "They have both done that, but this is the next stage in their lives. I see it as a perfect marriage. You have an owner who now is willing to do whatever it takes to win and a coach who has a proven track record who now very much wants to show he still can win. If they waste all their energy battling each other, they both will come out looking foolish."



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Bill Parcells exercises daily but remains overweight and always will be. Still, he looks and acts refreshed. A football guy can hit only so many golf balls. "I knew he would come back," says Cowboys offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon, who played for Parcells with the Giants and then coached under him with the Patriots and Jets. "It's in his blood. He wasn't ready to give it all up." He has been a recluse since moving to Dallas. He caught a Mavs game and attended a fund-raiser with Bob Knight, but mostly he has lived at the Cowboys' complex, scrambling to erase the rust of a three-year absence from the league. It has been easy to find the time. His family is back east, and he is more comfortable at Valley Ranch than lounging at home. In New York and New England, he was surrounded by loyal, longtime assistants. But in Dallas, Carthon is the only aide who previously has worked with him. So he had to train a new staff, an undertaking he says has energized him.

Yet nothing really has changed about his coaching. That remains his domain, and everyone needs to tread lightly around him. He quickly erased long-accepted staples within the Cowboys' locker room, traditions begun in the title years and maintained by stars such as Emmitt Smith. But under Parcells, there are no more dominoes, no more cell phones, no more food. Smith, the last of the core players who brought glory to Jones' teams, is in Arizona, and the Parcells-instituted rules have become symbolic in nature. He, not any of his players, is now the star in Dallas.

Jones, no fool, understands a snapshot of his image includes major interference with coaching. "Well, I'd say this hiring puts an end to that," he says, laughing. It is an easy tradeoff. Parcells' presence purchases time for the franchise. This was a lifeless team; now, it's worth watching again. Parcells alone will fill those empty seats that littered too many games last season. It was a masterstroke by Jones, the businessman.

In training camp, his players are feeling the full fury of the Parcells formula, which demands concentration and discipline, rejects any excuses, requires great physical stamina and thrives on breaking down athletes, testing their manliness and then building up the ones who are worth keeping. The Cowboys admit fear of Parcells is keeping them on edge. Wide receiver Antonio Bryant had minor finger surgery one morning and was back practicing that afternoon; he knows of Parcells' disgust for injured players who miss workouts.

His ways are maniacal and dictatorial. But they also provide the structure that won Super Bowls with the Giants and turned awful Patriots and Jets teams into title contenders. "The behavioral patterns of players haven't changed," says Parcells. "Kids are kids. They do what you let them do, and they don't do what you don't let them do. Sure, the league has changed, but I am going to coach the same way I have always coached. I will confront them in the same way. I think they get closer to you quicker when you do that. They learn to either trust you or just hate you. You find out quickly whether they will be on the boat or not. They can play for you even if they hate you -- and there will be a lot of hate going around here. A lot of it."

And he smiles that Jersey guy kind of smile -- a cross between a teeth dazzler and a snicker, the street-smart, going-to-bust-your-chops smile that looks so out of place in Texas.

The Cowboys are seeing a lot of that smile up close. Unlike most NFL coaches, Parcells deliberately plants himself in the players' space. His study of the Cowboys hasn't surprised him; the same ghouls of failure that were thrashing previous teams he took over were thriving in Dallas -- lack of confidence, lack of discipline, lack of a common goal, all of which combine to produce losing. His antidote to the gremlins began percolating months ago, when he started hanging regularly in the Cowboys' weight room just to watch and talk and learn.

"I've never been around a coach who has put that much time in the weight room, just visiting," says Cowboys tight end Tony McGee. "He seems to know a little bit about everyone already. It's a bit eerie."

He will use what he picked up -- the gossip, the music, the personalities, the degrees of dedication -- to begin destroying the old ways and instilling his. He used conditioning as his launch pad. He didn't need weekly reports about weight room attendance; he already was aware of the workers and the slackers. Running back Troy Hambrick was his first target. Parcells must have a dependable running back; that has been the offensive foundation of his good teams. But Hambrick was overweight this offseason, and Parcells is not convinced he has the will or the conditioning to withstand the workload of a premier runner. So he began needling Hambrick about extra pounds, both in person and through the media. Hambrick soon was putting in additional time riding the stationary bike outside, just to make sure Parcells saw him. He came to camp at 239, one pound under the goal required by his coach.

"He is the head-game king, a mastermind," says Bills fullback Sam Gash, who played for Parcells in New England. "He is going to berate you and play with your mind and get into your head if you let him. That is what makes him great. But if he believes in you, he will build you back up. He never says anything just to say it." The mind games in Dallas are in full bloom. The stars have been removed from the helmets of rookies; they aren't worthy of being full-fledged Cowboys yet. And all players, even established vets, have their names taped on their helmets. The message: No job is safe.

He will make the lives of these Cowboys a living hell, mentally and physically. "It should be in your contract: You are going to have arguments with him, sign right here," says linebacker Chris Slade, the former Patriot whose play once was described by Parcells as resembling a dog frantically chasing cars. "He is a tyrant who has a way of also putting a hand on you to show his appreciation. Early on, I thought he was an old, grumpy guy who was mad all the time, yelling and screaming. But I enjoyed playing for him." So did Terry Glenn. Parcells once referred to the receiver as "she." Now Glenn is a Cowboy, willingly joining his old tormentor, as did two former Jets, tackle Ryan Young and fullback Richie Anderson.

But, surprisingly, there hasn't been a flood of Parcells "guys" to Dallas.

"He is so smart, he can see so much that it isn't fair," says Ron Wolf, the former Packers general manager and a close friend of Parcells who spent the first week at camp along with ex-Patriots coach Chuck Fairbanks and ex-Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin evaluating personnel for Parcells. "That is his advantage. He is being smart right now. He has been out for a while, and he is feeling his way. He has to get his feet wet again. He doesn't want to do anything rash, but he has an uncanny ability to evaluate talent. Once he figures out what he has and what he needs, he'll get it going."

This is a young Cowboys team, one waiting to be led. The defense, directed by holdover coordinator Mike Zimmer, could be solid if No. 1 pick Terence Newman develops at corner and Parcells can elevate the play of the line. The receivers, with Glenn, Joey Galloway and Bryant, can be productive. But who will throw to them is another question; Chad Hutchinson has more varied skills than the mobile Quincy Carter, but Hutchinson struggled last season after moving into the starting spot. Neither wows you and Parcells is notorious for his clashes with quarterbacks. These young guys are in for quite a ride.



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It's good to have Parcells back. There is no other like him; for all his manipulations, he remains wonderfully entertaining and electrifying -- as long as you don't have to work for him. He is hardly your typical 2003 coach; he talks casually about playing the horses and his links to boxers and their managers. His persona casts a wide path; no one in the NFL dominates a room quite like him.

He signed a four-year contract, but you wonder if he can ride that out. He left the Jets because he was whipped and troubled by physical problems; he even wrote a book to chronicle what he declared would be his last season. But things change, both personally and professionally. The money is grand and, frankly, he wants to scratch that competitive itch one more time, even though he knows it will tear him apart.

"Coaching is a narcotic that gets to you," he says. "It is a killer game for guys like me. It can wear out your ass quick. It is not a burnout. It's just a consistent, intense emotional feeling you have in your body. The hardest part for me is when you are on that plane ride and you come back at 4 a.m. after a loss and you are exhausted and you say, 'There has to be a way to live life better than this.' "

But for him, there isn't. So when Jones came calling with a blank check and the lure of rebuilding a franchise of this magnitude, it made so much sense to inhale that drug one last time. "The great thing about this," Parcells says, "is that I know this isn't going to last forever for me. I am running out of daylight. But, holy God, I get not only to coach again but to coach in one of the great places."

If it means he also must surprise us and dodge and weave a bit away from the norm, hey, what's it to you anyway? He's just a lucky guy, he'll tell you. And right now that luck includes working for Jerry Jones.