As NFL Playoffs Loom, Parcells Presence Still Felt In New York, Dallas, New England

Carlo DeVito: I don’t think he’d coach again. I think if someone offered him another Miami-type situation again, he might consider it. He likes mentoring. Like [Vince] Lombardi, with Parcells, it’s always been about winning football games, yes, but about coaching young men too. I think if one of this year’s floundering organizations offered him a head of football operations job, he would seriously consider it. Kansas City, Jacksonville, and Miami are all in trouble right now. I don’t think he’d go back to Miami, obviously, but I wonder if he would consider the other two. Especially Kansas City, since some of his guys are already there.

BLS: Teams seem to flounder after he leaves. Why is that?

CD: I think it’s a number of things. Over all, I think he’s hard to replace. His drive, his motivation techniques, his demands for intensity and focus. Certainly when he’s there, things usually go on an upside. I think a lot of football decisions get made that he has nothing to do with once he’s gone. Coaching philosophies change. Personnel changes almost always happen. When he was with the Jets he had one of the best drafts anyone ever had, drafting a number of pro bowl players, and including Chad Pennington. After he left the Jets, many of those players were gone. That’s not his fault. The Jets in the final insult released Pennington whom he picked up while he was with the Dolphins, and beat the Jets with in the final game of that season with their own cast off of his drafting. So, personally, I think he’s hard to replace.

BLS: What is his football legacy?

CD: If football isn’t your life, he will weed you out. That was the mantra over and over from the players and coaches. He was very honest when he said that he had a very single, narrow focus in his life (possibly to his own detriment), but that kind of focus and dedication are what a whole legion of players, coaches, and executives bring forward with them. Parcells quotes abound in war rooms,  coaches meetings, and coach/player conversations. “You are what your record says you are” “It’s always darkest before it goes pitchblack” lots of sayings. But his focus is what peopel remember him most for. His work ethic. His desire to out work the opponent both physically and mentally.

BLS: What did you uncover about his relationships with players that fans might not know?

CD: One thing is that Parcells has met with more families than people really know. He very much took his relationships with his players seriously. There was one time when he had a player who had a drug habit, and he basically said to this young man, that the situation was beyond football, that they were in a fight for his very life, and Parcells called the player’s mother, who did not know about her son’s problem, which was devastating to the player, but it was what he needed to confront his demons. Other times he would call on a family to help him encourage or coach up a player. He relied heavily on those relationships, trying to get the very best out of player by understanding them as well as he could.

CD: Many players, no matter how rough he was on them, came to respect him later on in lfe. Jim Burt was the best example. He beat Burt mentally while he was ith the Giants. And he eventually released Burt. Burt signed on with the 49ers and played several more years. Burt was bitter at first, but eventually became a big fan of Parcells, because he instilled a set of values in Burt that he later came to treasure. Burt has since been a big and personal fan of Parcells. That kind of story has played itself out in Parcells life many times. Terry Glenn. Drew Bledsoe. The list goes on.

BLS: What did you find out about Parcells’ life away from the football field that might surprise people?

CD: What I was most surprised was by his family history, which I always find fascinating. His father, Chubby Parcells, was perhaps the best athlete ever to come out of Hackensack, NJ. He was a star football player at Georgetown. He held several NCAA football records for years. Became an FBI agent, and then was a legal counsel for Uniroyal for decades. Smart, bright, well liked. He knew Vince Lombardi as a neighbor. He had three sons. Don was 15 months younger than Bill, who was the oldest. Doug was the youngest. All three sons played Division I football. All three were very successful. The least financially successful, Doug, is a legend in North Jersey, and has one of the largest recreational parks in the state named after him. Don (who was the best football player) was running back at West Point, played in the Army-Navy game against Roger Staubach (his picture appeared in papers across the country, like his father), and became the president of First Fidelity Bank, which was among the nation’s largest banks. He literally made millions, before he diead of brain cancer.

BLS: How important was this union with his brothers and father?

CD: The four men had a single-minded focus that allowed them to succeed in almost any arena. His father bred in all of them a mental toughness and demanded excellence in all aspects of their lives. That family dynamic is very important in Parcells personal make-up. Many of his most memorable sayings came from his father. These four men, no matter where they travelled, never left Bergen County, NJ.

BLS: When you look at the people about whom you have written, what is the trait they all have that makes them such good topics?

CD: I love people who overcome all obstacles, no matter their severity. The Maras made money their first year with the Giants, and then lost money the next seven years. And with every challenge to the NFL by a rival league, they always bore the heaviest blow. And still they perservered. The Giants eventually were the first NFL franchise valued over $1 million. Both Yogi and Rizzuto were both misfits – way too small by professional sports standards, neither of whom finished high school, who were not terribly well spoken, who both went on to defy the odds, who by all odds, accomplished more than many other men in that sport – both Hall of Famers, both ended up their lives incredibly wealthy by good investments after baseball, and both had solid and successful careers after their playing days were over – (Yogi, coaching; Scooter, broadcasting).

BLS: How does your view of Parcells fit in with this?

CD: With Parcells, he spent 15 years gypsying around college football before he finally got his chance to coach professionally. He almost gave up on his dream, taking a year off to sell commercial real estate (at which he was successful), and over coming one of the worst seasons in Giants franchise history, only to go on to be one of the most successful coaches in NFL history. How can you not like that?

PHOTOS: Anthony J Causi/Icon SMI; ESPN