The Giants turnaround started when Pay Perkins was hired as coach and led the Giants to their first playoff appearance in 18 years behind the amazing Lawrence Taylor but Perkins left one season after that playoff appearance to replace Bear Bryant at Alabama and Parcells took over the coaching duties. Parcells almost was fired after going 3-12-1 in his first season but the Giants made the playoffs the next three years culminating in winning Super Bowl 21. After two seasons of missing the playoffs, the Giants made the playoffs in the next two seasons including the incredible 1990 Super Bowl season which included comeback wins over the two time defending champion 49ers in the NFC Championship game and the high-octane Buffalo Bills offense behind backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler.
The low point my Giants fandom...
...and the high point!
, 2000’s The Final Season: My Last Year as Head Coach in the NFL
, and 2014’s Parcells : A Football Life
as well as a 1995 motivational primer ‘Finding a Way to Win
’. Unlike the first two memoirs the 2014 book is more detailed and telling since Parcells was 73 when the book was published and had no designs on yet another coaching job. There is a lot of detail of Parcell’s childhood and many insights into his personal life that I had never heard. During his disastrous first season as Giants coach both his parents died. Parcells also talks candidly about his being an absentee father that missed almost all his three daughter’s events (including graduations) and was cheating on his wife during his entire coaching career. There is an entire chapter of how his ex-wife and current girlfriend carefully avoided each other at the funeral of Parcells’ brother.I don’t find Parcells’ personal life especially interesting – I was more interested his football career which the book covers in great detail from his college coaching career (including his stint at Army where he befriends legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight) to his pro assistant jobs and ascension to the Giants throne and beyond.
Parcells is portrayed as a Lombardi-like figure that is super tough on his players that consistently attest to how Parcells made them better than any other coach no matter how much they disliked his harassing manner and the work they had to put in. Parcells came in for a lot of criticism after the first Super Bowl for cashing by writing his autobiography and then hunting for a coaching job that would give him general manager authority over the team’s personnel. This isn’t addressed directly but Parcells’ insecurity about his job after his poor first season when the press got wind of Giants general manager George Young recruiting his replacement is prominently featured and looks to have had an educational and scarring effect since for the next 10 years Parcells only took jobs that allowed him control over the football operations. Both the Jets and Patriot jobs became unattractive once new ownership came in and brought Parcells insecurities back to the forefront.
After Parcells left the Jets it was a surprise to many (me included) when he went to work for the Cowboys and their very hands on owner Jerry Jones. It seems the two were kindred spirits in need of each other. Jones needed someone to show him how to run his football team and Parcells needed a job and both men were able to give up some of their control in order to work together. Parcells characterization of Terrell Owens as having an ego like a bucket with a hole in it that could never be filled was especially revealing and it now makes perfect sense that Parcells would try to command Owens' respect by referring to him as 'the player' instead of using his name.
Eventually the Parcells-Jones partnership ran its course with two playoff appearances in four years and Parcells went to the Miami Dolphins as the director of football operations in a coda to his career. Once again the team was sold after he came on board and he left shortly thereafter. The book closes with Parcells’ induction to the football hall of fame and his settling down to his retirement with a brief flirtation to coach the New Orleans Saints during Sean Payton’s year-long ‘Bountygate’ suspension.
I found this book to be revealing and thought-provoking. It is remarkable how many great leaders are driven by insecurities and Parcells seems to be part of that group. Once he was almost fired by the Giants in his first season as a head coach he was incapable of being in a football situation where he was not the dominant voice (except partially during his with the Cowboys). Parcells consistently brought players and coaches from the Giants to the Patriots, the Patriots to the Jets, and the Jets to the Cowboys to carry over his methodology but the results diminished at each stop (Super Bowl wins with the Giants, Super Bowl appearance with the Patriots, AFC Championship appearance with the Jets, playoff appearances with the Cowboys). It would have been interesting to see if Parcells could have developed Tony Romo into a championship quarterback but I think that as time rolled on the Parcells philosophy of building a football teal with athletic linebackers, massive linemen, and smashmouth running became harder and harder to win with due to rule changes that rewarded passing offenses. Parcells massive coaching tree of assistants who get their own head coaching jobs meant more competition for the same type of players. Eventually the league incorporates every different philosophy, distilling and integrating the best parts into the best parts of other philosophies that stood the test of time. It happened to the West Coast offense of Bill Walsh (who managed to get out ahead of the curve), Jimmy Johnson’s undersized but super quick defense, and Parcell’s smash mouth style. The only coach that has proven immune to the passage of time is Belichick with the final judgement still to be passed if he decides to ever change teams of carry on without Tom Brady.
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