Parcells

by Bill Parcells

  Another good sign could be found in the excellent group of coaches under Bill Parcells, although he knew that some of them would inevitably command bigger jobs elsewhere. During the off-season Al Groh, Parcells’s former Army colleague and Air Force assistant, was hired from South Carolina to oversee the Giants’ linebackers, easing Bill Belichick’s workload. And Parcells remained on the lookout for talented coaches, in case his ranks were thinned by defections.

  Cornerback Harvey Clayton joined the Giants in 1987 after four seasons with the Steelers. At his first practice, Parcells expressed curiosity about a certain technique the cornerback was employing to sharp effect in man-to-man coverage: using his outside arm to tip the cantilever strap of the wideout’s shoulder pad, knocking the player off balance. Clayton replied that he had learned it from Tony Dungy, Pittsburgh’s defensive coordinator. More football discussions with Clayton convinced Parcells that his new defensive back, though not especially talented, was exceptionally tutored. So only months after hiring Coughlin in early 1988, Parcells placed Dungy on his radar as a future Giants coach.

  When news broke of Tony Dungy’s dismissal by the Steelers at the end of the 1988 season, Parcells immediately phoned him, seeking a face-to-face meeting to discuss the thirty-three-year-old overseeing Big Blue’s defensive backs. Like Coughlin, Dungy had zero previous ties to Parcells. Their interactions were limited to no more than handshakes between coaches during warm-ups. But Dungy had a brief history with the Giants as a defensive back. Going into the 1980 season Ray Perkins had acquired Dungy from San Francisco’s Bill Walsh in a trade that included another future head coach, defensive back Ray Rhodes. Dungy spent six months on Big Blue’s roster, long enough to meet owner Wellington Mara and his son, John. Dungy, though, didn’t last beyond Perkins’s training camp. So the cerebral defensive back joined the Steelers to coach their secondary.

  Parcells faced plenty of competition for Dungy’s services. New 49ers head coach George Seifert, who was replacing Bill Walsh, courted Dungy, as did Marty Schottenheimer, who was in his first year guiding the Kansas City Chiefs. Bengals coach Sam Wyche wanted to hire Dungy, too, but was overruled by owner Mike Brown. Parcells’s interest stood out to Dungy because the Giants, only two seasons removed from a Super Bowl title, remained a defensive juggernaut.

  A protégé of Chuck Noll, Tony Dungy considered working for Big Blue, a team coming off a 10-win season despite missing the playoffs, an opportunity to broaden his football knowledge in a different system. So the young coach traveled to Giants headquarters at the Meadowlands, arriving in the early morning and making his way to the head coach’s office. During a short, pleasant conversation with Parcells the topic of football was barely broached. Dungy inquired about the proximity of Parcells’s home to Giants Stadium and the length of his commute.

  After the chat Parcells walked Dungy to a meeting room for a group interview with several coaches, including Bill Belichick and Romeo Crennel. Parcells didn’t stay for the wide-ranging discussion, which focused on football. As the meeting reached its sixth hour, Parcells’s secretary, Kim Kolbe, came in to tell Dungy that a severe storm was moving into the area, and he’d need to depart for the airport right away to keep from being stuck overnight. “We had to cut the meeting short,” Dungy recalls, “but we had a lot of fun.”

  Dungy was surprised and impressed that the football discussion took place without Parcells. Another unconventional aspect of the interview session was its inclusion of offensive coaches while Dungy was being considered for a defensive job. Parcells believed that assistants spent too much time in discrete groups, “their own little empires,” and he encouraged them to develop the wider bird’s-eye view that had served him well as a rookie NFL coach. “I kind of learned from that,” says Dungy, whose coaching tree includes Leslie Frazier, Lovie Smith, and Mike Tomlin. “He [Parcells] wanted to see how I fit in with the group. I’m sure he was going to make the decision in the end, but he didn’t want to just tell these guys, ‘Here’s the new coach, like it or not.’ ”

  Dungy was intrigued by the prospect of joining the Giants, but the small-town native of Michigan was reluctant to move his family to the New York area. In the end, he called Parcells to let him know that he would be joining Marty Schottenheimer’s staff in Kansas City.

  “This would be a great opportunity, Bill, and I appreciate it. But family-wise, it’s not the right move. If you were anywhere but New York, I would have taken the job.”

  As head coach of one of the NFL’s best teams, and staffs, Parcells was almost never turned down by a coaching candidate. He had even lured Tom Coughlin away from the legendary Chuck Noll, Dungy’s mentor and owner of a record four Super Bowl rings. So Parcells was surprised by Dungy’s decision, and seemed skeptical about the explanation. “At first, I don’t think he believed me,” Dungy recalls. “But I think that as we got to know each other, he did come to understand that I wasn’t BS’ing him. The job was tempting because they were so good. Going there and working under Bill would have been special.”

  Even without Tony Dungy, Parcells’s staff was among the best in franchise history and, it would turn out, in NFL annals. The coaches’ locker room included four stalls arranged with nameplates from left to right: “Crennel,” “Belichick,” “Coughlin,” and “Parcells.” Giants running-backs coach Ray Handley was a mathematical whiz allegedly not averse to exploiting his aptitude by playing blackjack at Las Vegas casinos. He would secretly count cards, a practice that wasn’t illegal but led to his being banned from the premises. In a nod to Handley’s math wizardry, Parcells added clock management to his duties.

  Hired by Ray Perkins in 1979, Bill Belichick had already contributed the longest stint of any Giants assistant in franchise history. And as his career aspirations intensified, Belichick, on Parcells’s staff since 1983, grew weary of some of his boss’s traits. Even in a relationship that benefited both men, tension simmered between the head coach and his top assistant. “You could coach with your twin brother,” says Al Groh, “and if he’s the head coach, eventually you want to be a head coach, too.”

  Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin often worked on strategy together during practice. Leading up to games, they shared their detailed perspectives about opponents. The pair were considered the most likely among Parcells’s assistants to land head-coaching jobs, if not eventually succeed him. In early 1989 the Browns interviewed Bill Belichick as they looked to replace Marty Schottenheimer, fired after an opening-round playoff loss that overshadowed Cleveland’s 10-win season, but the job went to Jets defensive coordinator Bud Carson.

  Parcells’s coaches had to endure Parcells’s roller-coaster moods, stinting praise, bullying, and impatience. Yet those downsides were trumped by his winning ways, expert tutoring, and lasting loyalty. Parcells, who intimately understood the peaks and valleys of coaching, instructed his assistants to keep their summer breaks football-free, a decree intended to prevent burnout. The staff returned for training camp rejuvenated and ready for Parcells’s inexorable demands.

  Coughlin, as much as any assistant, relished the grind. On Christmas Day, Parcells telephoned the office to retrieve messages, only to have his wide-receivers coach pick up after two rings. Parcells viewed Coughlin as an ideal assistant and a future head coach, thanks to his leadership, intensity, and indefatigability. “Strong like Ajax,” Parcells says. As the Giants zoomed to an 8-1 start to their 1989 season without allowing more than 24 points in any game, Coughlin enjoyed the tremendous learning experience. The wide-receivers coach was impressed by Parcells’s encyclopedic knowledge of his players, including their personal backgrounds. Coughlin was struck even more by his boss’s hyperawareness of players on other rosters. That in-depth familiarity, especially with NFC East personnel, was no accident: Parcells took great pains to study the strengths and weaknesses of opponents. After scrutinizing tape he grilled football people in the know for further insight. Parcells recalls about Joe Gibbs’s Redskins, “I knew them cold, what they could do and
what they couldn’t do. It wasn’t, ‘Oh, this guy is a good player,’ like somebody in the press says.”

  Parcells’s most enlightening lessons, though, involved how to build a team. He tutored all of his coaches in the Kilroy personnel-evaluation system so that the entire staff had the same philosophy on talent assessment. The shared approach, overseen by George Young, helped assistants integrate players into Parcells’s schemes. One new weapon was Dave Meggett, drafted in the fifth round, 132nd overall, via Towson University. Parcells had been skeptical about Meggett’s future in the NFL given his five-seven, 190-pound frame, until the rookie’s explosiveness and versatility made the coach a convert. Meggett led the league in punt-return yards (582), while amassing 577 kickoff-return yards, 531 receiving yards, and 117 rushing yards. He became the first tailback to gain at least 500 receiving yards and 500 punt-return yards. So serious was Meggett as a threat, especially as a third-down back, that he was named a Pro Bowl selection, the only Giants player to earn the accolade that year besides Lawrence Taylor.

  Ottis “O. J.” Anderson, an eleventh-year veteran in 1989, played like a rejuvenated runner. After three years specializing in short-yardage and goal-line situations, Anderson emerged as Big Blue’s featured back after Joe Morris broke his foot. Although Anderson averaged only 3.2 yards per carry on his way to 1,023 yards, his power running fit seamlessly into Parcells’s ground-and-pound offense. Anderson produced a career-high 14 touchdowns in 1989, and was named Comeback Player of the Year.

  Meggett and Anderson helped the Giants capture their division title with the NFC’s second-best mark (12-4) after San Francisco (14-2). Joe Montana, the league MVP, set a passer-rating record of 112.4 in George Seifert’s first season replacing Bill Walsh. The Giants and 49ers seemed headed for a showdown to determine a Super Bowl appearance, but first Big Blue faced John Robinson’s Los Angeles Rams (11-5) at Giants Stadium. Behind dynamic quarterback Jim Everett, Los Angeles had defeated New York, 31–10, at Anaheim Stadium during the regular season, the largest margin in a Giants loss for the entire year. But the host Giants were playoff favorites, especially with temperatures forecast for the mid-30s.

  In a back-and-forth affair the Rams led 7–6 at halftime on a 20-yard touchdown catch by Willie “Flipper” Anderson. Earlier in the season, the UCLA product set an NFL record for receiving yards with 336 versus New Orleans. Despite sharp play from the Giants, particularly O. J. Anderson, they had failed to reach the end zone. In the second half Big Blue’s front seven, led by Lawrence Taylor, Pepper Johnson, and Leonard Marshall, hounded Everett as the Giants seized a 13–7 lead. But a pair of Rams field goals, the final one with about three minutes left, forced overtime. The last Giants playoff game to require an extra session had taken place in the 1958 NFL Championship versus the Baltimore Colts, with an outcome that devastated Big Blue followers.

  The overtime coin flip went to the Rams, who elected to receive Raul Allegre’s kickoff. Within a minute Everett guided St. Louis to New York’s 30. On first-and-15, Flipper Anderson set up on the right side, near the sideline. Single coverage by cornerback Mark Collins required him to disrupt the wideout’s route near the line of scrimmage. But on the snap, Anderson sidestepped to Collins’s left, avoiding an effective jam. The split-second sequence allowed Anderson to gain a step while sprinting downfield toward the right corner of the end zone. Anderson caught Everett’s rainbow pass in stride at the 5, Collins lunging futilely at his waist. As Anderson crossed the goal line the crowd of 76,325 fell so quiet that the whoops by Rams players reverberated in Giants Stadium. Anderson kept sprinting while holding the ball with his right hand above his head. He darted into the tunnel, and didn’t stop until reaching the visitors’ locker room. Only 66 seconds into overtime, Los Angeles had prevailed, 19–13, for the fastest sudden-death outcome in NFL playoff history. Parcells trudged grimly across the field in his blue Giants windbreaker. “That one,” he says of Anderson’s catch, “still haunts me.”

  San Francisco defeated the Rams, 30–3, in the NFC Championship, to reach Super Bowl XXIV at Louisiana’s Superdome. There the 49ers trounced Denver, 55–10, the largest margin in the game’s history, for their second consecutive title. Joe Montana became the first quarterback to win three Super Bowl MVPs. San Francisco’s dominant season and a roster loaded with talent, including backup quarterback Steve Young, prompted predictions of a third consecutive Super Bowl.

  The Giants entered the 1990 season as a Super Bowl favorite. The team’s playoff heartbreaker against the Los Angeles Rams was considered a fluke. And as the season began, Big Blue confirmed that view, sporting a defense that steamrolled offenses with ferocity and single-mindedness that evoked shades of the 1986 unit.

  The defense was among the best ever. And if history doesn’t quite repeat itself, the 1990 group proved early that it certainly rhymes. The haymakers sure sounded familiar, even if they came from, say, linebacker Gary Reasons instead of Harry Carson. Once again the Giants possessed the premier front seven in the NFL, essentially Big Blue Wrecking Crew 2.0, and a secondary that wasn’t exactly shabby. The unit’s mantra was to punish opponents into submission. Defenders relished coming off the field in the fourth quarter saying, “My guy just quit!”

  New York’s cocksure, bullying defense made up for a less dangerous offense as the Giants racked up victories. Phil Simms looked sharp in directing a smashmouth approach that maximized time of possession and executed with precision. The offense’s brute force was epitomized by O. J. Anderson running behind blocking by six-seven, 305-pound lineman Jumbo Elliott. Anderson split snaps with rookie Rodney Hampton, a first-round pick via Georgia (twenty-fourth overall) expected to start by season’s end.

  Big Blue, with the nickname fitting the personnel better than ever, imposed its will on opponents while winning nine straight for the best start in franchise history. Parcells’s team allowed only single digits in four of those games. The offense, though lacking in aesthetics, rarely committed turnovers as Simms posted the league’s best passer rating. However, Big Blue’s perfect record did nothing to mute Parcells’s complaints. Instead, it only made them louder and more frequent.

  With Jeff Rutledge’s departure for the Redskins, Jeff Hostetler had taken over as Simms’s backup. In practice before a November 18 home game against the Lions, Hostetler quarterbacked the scout team and simulated Detroit’s run-and-shoot offense. The system featured motion by receivers to create mismatches and decipher coverage before improvisational routes. Showcasing his considerable talent, Hostetler shredded Big Blue’s vaunted defense. At the staff meeting following the session, Parcells mocked Bill Belichick and Al Groh, whose coaching of the Giants’ dominant defense was being glorified in the press.

  “Okay, you wizards. That might have been the worst football practice I’ve seen in my life. You guys better go fix it.”

  A few days later at Giants Stadium, Belichick unveiled a quirky 2-4-5 scheme that completely shut down Detroit’s run-and-shoot offense. The Giants triumphed, 20–0, lowering the team’s average points allowed to 11. Ray Handley concluded that New York, at 10-0, had clinched a playoff spot, a full week before the NFL’s confirmation.

  Despite that sizzling stretch, there was still some question as to whether the Giants were the NFC’s best team. The defending-champion 49ers matched Big Blue’s start victory for victory, inspiring a mantra: “three-peat.” No team in league history had ever won more than two straight Super Bowls. The Giants and 49ers were set for a showdown between undefeated teams in two weeks on Monday Night Football, but before then Big Blue lost, 31–3, at Philadelphia in a scuffle-filled game that was much closer than the final score indicated. San Francisco’s streak was also snapped in an upset by the Los Angeles Rams, 28–17, at Candlestick Park.

  As Parcells had expected, his staff was attracting attention for head-coaching openings. On November 28, Boston College fired Tom Coughlin’s former boss Jack Bicknell, and courted Big Blue’s wide-receivers coach. But with the 10-1 Giants positioned
for a Super Bowl run, Coughlin wouldn’t entertain the thought of leaving, forcing Boston College to look elsewhere.

  Days later, on December 3, the Giants visited Candlestick Park for one of Monday Night Football’s most highly anticipated games. In a show of physicality by both defenses, the Giants were down 7–3 in the waning moments of the game. Big Blue was in prime position to score with first-and-goal from San Francisco’s 9, but the 49ers made a spirited stand that culminated with a deflected pass in the end zone. After the fourth-down play, Ronnie Lott strutted up to Simms until their face masks touched and spewed expletive-filled taunts. Simms yakked back, bumping Lott before teammates separated the two players. The disappointing outcome gave New York its second straight loss.

  The Giants snapped their skid with a 23–15 home victory over the Minnesota Vikings, but in its next game Big Blue faced much stiffer competition from the AFC’s top team: the Buffalo Bills, whose record at 12-2 made them seem like inevitable Super Bowl participants versus either the Giants or 49ers. Buffalo’s high-powered hurry-up offense, orchestrated by Jim Kelly, overshadowed a badass defense starring sack-master Bruce Smith.

  Playing in freezing rain at Giants Stadium in a rare Saturday matchup, New York trailed 14–10 early in the third quarter. After completing a pass to David Meggett, Phil Simms fell, untouched, to the turf while clutching his knee in agony. Simms declined Bruce Smith’s help before limping off the field. The freak injury turned out to be a fractured bone, ending the quarterback’s season. Jeff Hostetler took the helm, making several sharp throws and scrambling for tidy gains, but Buffalo prevailed, 17–13, handing Big Blue its third loss in four games.