Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Best There Ever Was

This Saturday at 5:30pm, the greatest coach in NFL history will rightfully take his place in the National Football League Hall of Fame. There are coaches who have more Super Bowl rings, have more playoff wins, higher winning percentages, more admirers, etc. but nobody was as good at his craft as Bill Parcells. The only coach to take four different teams to the playoffs, the only coach to win a Super Bowl with a backup quarterback, and the only man to rebuild five franchises.

If you were to put all of the greatest coaches in NFL history in a courtroom and asked them to present their cases, all would have worthwhile testimonies. Lombardi is the only coach to win five championships, Chuck Noll built arguably the greatest dynasty of all time, Bill Walsh created the West Coast offense (winning three Super Bowls along the way), and this Sunday Bill Belichick will be going for his fourth Super Bowl ring. These are just some of the many men who have the right to be included in any "Greatest Coach of All Time" debate.

Parcells, however, proved himself more than any of these coaches. In all four places he coached, he started out with some of the worst teams in the league and within only a few years those teams were either winning or contending for Super Bowls.

New York Giants
  • From 1964-1982, the Giants made the playoffs once
  • Parcells First Year: 1983.
  • 1983 New York Giants 3-12-1
  • 1986 New York Giants 14-2 Super Bowl Champions
New England Patriots
  • In 1992, the Patriots went 2-14
  • Parcells First Year: 1993
  • 1993 New England Patriots 5-11
  • 1996 New England Patriots 11-5 AFC Champions
New York Jets
  • In 1996, the Jets went 1-15
  • Parcells First year: 1997
  • 1997 New York Jets 9-7
  • 1998 New York Jets 12-4 AFC Championship Game
Dallas Cowboys
  • From 2000-2002, the Cowboys went 5-11 each year
  • Parcells First Year: 2003
  • 2003 Dallas Cowboys 10-6 Wild Card Berth


No other coach has a resume of building teams quite like Parcells. It is impressive for a coach to take one terrible team and turn them into winners. Parcells did it four times.

There are coaches in all sports who have won a staggering amount of games. The best coaches are the ones who do not need the most talent to win. Most times in the NFL, it takes a great Quarterback to win, and win consistently. Unlike most of the other great coaches in league history, Parcells didn't need a Hall of Fame Quarterback to win. Lombardi had Bart Starr, Noll had Terry Bradshaw, Walsh had Joe Montana, and Belichick has Tom Brady. Parcells had Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler. No matter what era of football you are talking about, the Quarterback is the most important man on the field. Parcells was able to win with Phil Simms, a Quarterback who was solid and above average, but not one of the top Quarterbacks of his era. Together the two won Super Bowl XXI. This was the first and last time Simms ever played in the big game. Parcells' more impressive feat came in 1990 when he took the underdog Giants, this time led by backup Quarterback Jeff Hostetler, to a victory over the heavily favored Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. In those two Super Bowls, Parcells took the inferior starting Quarterback (Simms, Hostetler) and defeated two of the greatest to ever play the game (John Elway, Jim Kelly.)

What did Chuck Noll do after Terry Bradshaw retired in 1983? He won a total of two playoff games in the next six years. How did Bill Belichick fare as a head coach without Tom Brady? In five seasons as coach of the Cleveland Browns, Belichick had one season above .500. In Belichick's lone season in New England without Brady, he went 5-11. This is not a knock on Noll and Belichick, it is just a testament to show how hard it is to win, and win consistently, without a great Quarterback. Parcells did it with four different franchises.

Four head coaching jobs resulting in four monumental turnarounds is impressive. Parcells' last job was equally as impressive. In 2008, he took over as the Executive Vice President of Football Operations of the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins were coming off of a 2007 season in which they went 1-15, the worst record in the league. Much like he did with the 1-15 New York Jets, Parcells turned the Dolphins into winners. In his first season in command the Dolphins went 11-5. The 10 game turnaround is the greatest in NFL history. Even though Parcells did not have the title of "Head Coach" as he did with his four previous jobs, it is safe to say that he was the man mostly responsible for the unbelievable improvement. His track record backs up that point.

The Bill Parcells coaching tree also shows that his greatness was contagious. Some of his staffs were the greatest ever assembled. Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Sean Payton, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Josh McDaniels, Tony Sparano, and Steve Spagnuolo are just some of the men that came up in the NFL coaching ranks under Parcells' tutelage. Belichick and Coughlin are slam-dunk Hall of Fame coaches while Sean Payton is one of the top 5 or 6 coaches in the game today. It is impossible to say where these men would be without Bill Parcells but they have come a long way because of him.

Maybe with his Hall of Fame induction, NFL historians and fans alike will examine his legacy different than in years past. If they do so, the only resulting conclusion goes in Parcells favor. He is the best there ever was.