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Miami Herald calling out Bill Parcells

NIGHT STALKER

By NIGHT STALKER
in NY Jets Forum

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NIGHT STALKER

NIGHT STALKER

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Ricky Williams left by telling his coach just before the season. That was not the right way. Nick Saban left under an avalanche of defiant lies. That was not the right way. LeBron James left with a TV special. That was not the right way. I had concluded, given the blinding emotion of fandom and the angry noise that can surround games, that there was no good way for a sports figure to leave a job unfinished, just various bad ways. But Bill Parcells has proved me wrong.

The way to do it, evidently, is with no comment or explanation and with the illusion that you have put a plan in place. Far as I can tell, the only difference between Parcells and Saban is that Parcells is more honest about being a mercenary. The payoff is that Parcells gets far more of the money than Saban did and far less of the reaction. But the idea that Parcells has fixed things around here is as large a lie as any Saban ever told.

For the record, this is the Parcellian exit strategy:

Just before you bail, waive the failed high picks from your recent draft like a cover-up paper shredding that erases evidence. Fix the mistakes you've made at receiver by trading away some future for a troubled one everyone knows is great, even though it goes against just about your every principle. And throw a bunch of money in an uncapped year at a linebacker everyone agrees is the second-best defensive player available through free agency.

These last two good moves -- moves anyone with money and draft picks could have made -- will create the commodity built into sports that all the famous messiahs traffic in (hope) and obscure the fact that you have discovered very little of your own talent. So then you can step down with a two-sentence press release a few days before the season. And then, in your first public comments after that, you can announce to the New York media, and only the New York media, that you'd be interested in being another team's false prophet soon -- thus letting the entire NFL know you are available for the right price while still cashing Dolphin checks.

READ THE FINE PRINT

That Parcells has been able to do this without fan outrage is more amazing than winning a Super Bowl with Jeff Hostetler. If Parcells had handled his two years in charge as masterfully as he did this exit, the Dolphins might feel more like the Patriots. What Parcells did, you understand, is not unlike what got everybody yelling at the sloth of Albert Haynesworth. Once his boss changed, Parcells essentially stopped caring as much but kept cashing the checks.

He negotiated an open-ended contract with Wayne Huizenga that allowed him to leave with all the dollars if Huizenga ever sold the team, a brilliant move for Parcells but not one for the franchise. This is how Huizenga got Jimmy Johnson, Saban and Parcells. Give the big name all the power, plus a lopsided contract and no interference. The benefit is that you get the savior everyone wants. The downside is that you are rewarding famous people for what they have done for other teams in the past without the guarantee they'll give your team that effort or those results in the future.

I'm not blaming Parcells for exercising a contract clause he negotiated. It is good business. It is excellent work by his agent -- and the reason Parcells himself tries to avoid agents by making contract offers to Jason Taylor and Ricky Williams on ridiculous post-it notes. I'm just flabbergasted that this has been met with shrugs and yawns instead of all the jersey burning and hateful volume directed at Williams and Saban and James. The difference between what he did and what they did isn't as large as the difference in the reactions. Is this all about presentation and packaging?

Parcells, halfway through his contract, handed the franchise over to disciples Tony Sparano and Jeff Ireland. Is that why fans are OK with it? Even though we really don't have much of an idea about how special they are beyond him knighting them?

Here's what I know: The best way for anyone to do a job is to be unafraid of losing it. This is what allows Bill Belichick to make daring, unpopular moves that other bosses are afraid to make amid the copycat cattle of coaching (well, this and Tom Brady). For all their tough talk, many coaches are afraid to make the different decision that could get blamed for the wrong result. Doing what everyone else has always done is safer and leaves you less open to the criticism that your different choices are what caused the defeat. But that attitude also plays defense against a leader having vision.

HOW MUCH CREDIT?

Belichick's résumé insulates him from fear, as does Parcells'. But Sparano and Ireland have no such insulation. That's the biggest problem with Parcells leaving -- the absence of a leader who can act unafraid. What you get as a result is last week's special-team's debacle, where the special-teams coach is fired only after everyone in the stadium realizes he should be fired. You pay these people for leadership and vision. You pay them to prevent these things, not to notice them at the same time as the rest of us and then react to them.

The NFL legislates equity with schedules and salary cap and the draft, so the Dolphins weren't going to stay 1-15. Parcells deserves credit for bringing stability, even though we still don't know how good this team's executives are or how good the quarterback is or how good the defense is. The next month of schedule is so hard it could undo the entire season and leave the Dolphins at exactly .500 in all the time since Parcells took over. And this despite an 11-5 schedule-soft mirage that happened only because the Jets acquired Brett Favre and discarded Chad Pennington.

And I can't help but wonder:

Parcells bailed on the job with the bridge half-built when his job was to build the entire bridge.

Why do so few fans seem angry about that?

Read more:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/09/1865879/bill-parcells-avoids-the-wrath.html

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SoFlaJets

SoFlaJets

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Why date a woman who you know is gonna leave you at the altar if you're going to be upset when they leave you at the altar? Is anyone really surprised?

Look, I would have answered this question but I ain't talking to you anymore since you peed on my rug on my birthday OK? I said it...

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T0mShane

T0mShane

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Why date a woman who you know is gonna leave you at the altar if you're going to be upset when they leave you at the altar? Is anyone really surprised?

Awesome analogy. Parcells is leaving a lot of good players behind when he goes the same way he did in Dallas, new England and with the Jets.

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JiF

JiF

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Why date a woman who you know is gonna leave you at the altar if you're going to be upset when they leave you at the altar? Is anyone really surprised?

You are on point this morning Booz.

How Miami can be upset with Parcells when you know damn well he's going to leave this exact way that anyone could have scripted is beyond me.

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SMC

SMC

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Awesome analogy. Parcells is leaving a lot of good players behind when he goes the same way he did in Dallas, new England and with the Jets.

Definitely good analogy, but you can't include New England in your statement because Parcells had nothing to do with personnel there. That's why he left, remember?

Also, Parcells acted as GM for 3 teams (Jets, Cowboys, and Fins) and those teams won only 1 playoff game under his reign. So, yes, a fanbase can be upset about the chick who you know knew was going to leave you at the alter if the chick didn't give you good sex in the meantime.

Parcells has given the Jets, Cowboys, and Fins a grand total of 3 good seasons combined. That's something to be upset about for any fanbase when someone is treated as the football messiah.

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Jetsfan80

Jetsfan80

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So, yes, a fanbase can be upset about the chick who you know knew was going to leave you at the alter if the chick didn't give you good sex in the meantime.

They'll always have 11-5 though (I.E. that one time the girl let you have sex without a condom, in keeping with this sweet analogy).

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T0mShane

T0mShane

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Definitely good analogy, but you can't include New England in your statement because Parcells had nothing to do with personnel there. That's why he left, remember?

Also, Parcells acted as GM for 3 teams (Jets, Cowboys, and Fins) and those teams won only 1 playoff game under his reign. So, yes, a fanbase can be upset about the chick who you know knew was going to leave you at the alter if the chick didn't give you good sex in the meantime.

Parcells has given the Jets, Cowboys, and Fins a grand total of 3 good seasons combined. That's something to be upset about for any fanbase when someone is treated as the football messiah.

Solid points, but--trying to remember--(and I'll look it up later) that the record of those teams the three years after parcells left them is almost the opposite of what it was the three years before he came in. The Jets, NE and Dallas were in shambles and he restored them. I may be wrong about the records, but Parcells has stocked the teams he's worked for.

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Klecko73isGod

Klecko73isGod

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Solid points, but--trying to remember--(and I'll look it up later) that the record of those teams the three years after parcells left them is almost the opposite of what it was the three years before he came in. The Jets, NE and Dallas were in shambles and he restored them. I may be wrong about the records, but Parcells has stocked the teams he's worked for.

To be fair, he completely f**ked up his exit from the Jets and left us in cap hell.

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Aten

Aten

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Evaluating Parcells's track record is as easy as before and after. In each of his last four jobs, he came in with the singular mandate of turning a miserable franchise around, and in each instance he unequivocally did so. Complaining about stuff he didn't do above and beyond that is totally beside the point.

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Klecko73isGod

Klecko73isGod

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Evaluating Parcells's track record is as easy as before and after. In each of his last four jobs, he came in with the singular mandate of turning a miserable franchise around, and in each instance he unequivocally did so. Complaining about stuff he didn't do above and beyond that is totally beside the point.

Is it really too much to expect someone to stay until the job is finished?

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Bruce Banner

Bruce Banner

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Is it really too much to expect someone to stay until the job is finished?

He signed on to work for Huizenga and ended up working for Marc Antony. Its a miracle he stayed so long with all the gayness going on around him.

Anyway, Fin fans are insane if they say Parcells didn't help their team. That team was a joke and if all he did was make them a .500 team that's still something. Browns and Bills fans are still waiting for that supposedly easy turnaround job.

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SMC

SMC

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Solid points, but--trying to remember--(and I'll look it up later) that the record of those teams the three years after parcells left them is almost the opposite of what it was the three years before he came in. The Jets, NE and Dallas were in shambles and he restored them. I may be wrong about the records, but Parcells has stocked the teams he's worked for.

Remember, Parcells did not restore the Patriots. He was only the HC. That's it. The reason he left was because he wasn't allowed to make personnel decisions. He had the famous quote of, "Why do they want me to cook if I'm not allowed to buy the groceries?" or something to that effect.

Parcells was a horrible drafter with the Jets. Good trades and FA signing (Martin & Mawae), but he did a bad personnel job with the Jets and, as Kleck noted, put them in cap hell (the Mo Lewis out-the-door longterm contract).

He drafted well with Dallas, but he had no clue what to do with the QB and lucked out with Romo. Still, his record with the Cowboys was 34-30 (32-32 with the Pats, BTW). And the Pats championship teams was built by Pioli and Belichick. Parcells had nothing to do with it. So I don't believe saying that "Parcells has stocked the teams he's worked for" is in anyway accurate.

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Aten

Aten

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And we still haven't won the championship that fat POS promised us.

Winning a championship is hard. I don't like reducing things to narrative but since it seems that it's the only way to make a point around here, here goes. It takes three steps to go from nothing to a championship. The first one is turning the sad sack, Rams/Lions/Browns-type, perennial double digit-loser franchise into a real football team. Second step is turning that team into a contender. Third step is sealing the deal. The fact that Parcells never got to three on any of his reclamation projects hardly negates his unparalleled track record of accomplishing the first two in one fell swoop.

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T0mShane

T0mShane

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To be fair, he completely f**ked up his exit from the Jets and left us in cap hell.

Word. I'd never hire Parcells as a GM, but if I owned a moribund team that couldn't get out of its own way I'd bring him in as a Team Presidengt of Football Ops and let him clean house. Sure, he'd bail on me in three years but I'd at least have a defense and a running game ready for the next coach.

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T0mShane

T0mShane

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Parcells had nothing to do with it. So I don't believe saying that "Parcells has stocked the teams he's worked for" is in anyway accurate.

I'll agree that he's a spotty drafter (at best) but he's taken brutal teams and turned them into contenders. I think that's undeniable, brother.

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