Fair or not, Parcells' Hall fate tied to Fins

[DolFan619]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/532164.html

Fair or not, Parcells' Hall fate tied to Fins

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO
Miami Herald

With little public fanfare, the Pro Football Hall of Fame modified its bylaws several months back, quietly changing the time that coaches must wait to be considered for election from one year to five years.

The significant change, according to the Hall's Joe Horrigan, was under consideration for some time because coaches were leaving the sidelines, then returning after their bronze bust was residing in Canton, Ohio.

''Since coaches were retiring at earlier ages and then coming back out of retirement, a waiting period similar to players made sense,'' Horrigan told The Miami Herald in an e-mail. ``Also, sometimes the difference between an official retirement and a temporary hiatus from coaching was increasingly difficult to discern.''

The change protects the Hall's integrity. It is smart thinking and, at first glance, nothing that would cause ripples around the NFL's South Florida outpost.

Don Shula, after all, was elected a decade ago, and no coach with Dolphins ties has since made a case for remaining employed, much less being considered for the Hall of Fame.

Until now.

Under the old rule, Dolphins football czar Bill Parcells would have been eligible for Hall of Fame consideration this year. He last coached with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006, and that means his career 183-131-1 record would have brought him consideration.

Now, however, any aspiration Parcells has of reaching football immortality has to wait until 2012. That is his first year of eligibility under the new rule.

And that changes a lot of things.

If he were eligible this year, today, the argument for voting Parcells into the Hall of Fame would be compelling.

Nevermind that his 183 career victories put him in the top 10 in that category. Forget that his .579 playoff winning percentage is better than Hall of Famers Tom Landry, Paul Brown and, yes, Shula.

A Hall of Famer should be more than raw statistics that can be twisted and spun. A Hall of Famer should have a history that speaks about excellence.

Parcells has that.

He took four different teams to the playoffs. No coach in NFL history has done that. He turned around a New York Giants franchise that had one winning season in the decade before he took over. He had the New England Patriots in the playoffs two seasons after they were 2-14 and took them to the Super Bowl in 1996.

He turned a 1-15 Jets team into a Super Bowl contender in two seasons. And he had Dallas in the playoffs after three 5-11 seasons in a row.

So if Parcells were eligible for election now, his history of turning bad into good, chumps into champs, would make him a certain inductee.

But the voters who will consider Parcells in 2012 will be fed another set of facts that aren't in play today.

Four years from now, the job Parcells does as the Dolphins' architect also will be on his résumé, and, fair or not, that will work for or against him.

No, he is not Miami's coach. He is not general manager. But he is everything to the Dolphins.

It could be fairly argued that Parcells' work in Miami should not enter the Hall of Fame conversation at all. But the fact is, Hall voters allow their debates to include practically all of the facts.

They consider off-field behavior for players, even though, at that level of accomplishment, off-field issues didn't affect performance. They consider whether too many players from one team are being inducted in the same year, and in what order those players should go in.

In Parcells' case, the voters already have turned him away four times -- in 1991, 1992, 2001 and 2002 -- over an issue that had nothing to do with his coaching ability or record.

Voters were not certain Parcells had retired, and the debate raged over that instead of his accomplishments. If the voters considered that, they definitely will look at what Parcells does with the Dolphins.

If the Dolphins falter, his reputation will suffer even as his record remains the same.

But if he turns Miami around, as he did with his other teams, he will punctuate a fine career with an exclamation point. His would be an open-and-shut case for induction in a recast first year of eligibility.

[Defense54]

Not that Parcells needs any motivation, but in the grand scheme of things its good to know that his reputation is still on the line. In the end I think his Job here will only cement his HOF status.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Why?

If he is inducted or not inducted it will be as a coach, not as veep of football operations. 

BILL PARCELLS IS NOT THE COACH OF THE MIAMI DOLPHINS. 

[Defense54]

If you read the article you would see that they said the Hall considers ALL the facts. That would include any job he did here as the VP.

Probably the very same reasoning that will Keep Belichick out.........

[ethurst2]

Bill Parcells gets too much credit for picking players and turning franchises around. There have been people behind the scenes that have made the decisions that Parcells has ALWAYS taken credit for. Not one press conference have I heard him in his last stops give Player personnel guys their props.

 As a coach, I think he's overrated. As a motivator and manipulator, I can't think of anyone else that I would want representing me in a business deal.

The problem with Parcells is that he becomes bigger than what he is and it runs him afoul of people. I never thought that you could one-up a person like Jerry Jones but hey, Bills best friend is Bobby Knight.

Everywhere Parcells has been, he has been lucky to have a couple of superstars that stand out. Parcells just has good assistants who are great coaches. I knew Belichick was a great coach when he masterminded the game plan to stop John Elway in the Super Bowl and slow down Buffalo's K-Gun offense which I thought at the time no one could do.

These guys actually got their pedigree BEFORE they ran into Parcells. Look at the history of Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick and you will see that they were already molded before they got to Parcells staff. They were just no names that needed to coach on an NFL team.

Coughlin was always a tough, detail, disciplined guy. In college at Syracuse, he was called "stoneface" by the teammates who he blocked for.

Which happened to be Floyd Little and Larry Csonka.

Don Shula had a chance to pick up Bill Belichick in the late 1980's. Shula and Belichicks father were good friends but Shula told him no. The one fault that Don Shula had was that he would stay with players and coaches way after they lost their fastball. That's the way that old school coaches were.

Everywhere that Parcells has went, he ends up mad at management for not bowing down to him as far as players. Let's take a look.

Giants - The Mara family hires Parcells in 1981. The Lawrence Taylor pick was a no-brainer because he was hands down, the best defensive player in college football. There was this quarterback named Phil Simms on the team but Parcells wanted his own guy, Scott Brunner. The problem was that Brunner wasn't winning any games and the Giants were going down the tubes. Parcells was stubborn about changing over to Simms because Simms came from the Perkins regime (I hope you're reading this John Beck).

Well, we all know what happened to Brunner and what happened with Phil Simms.

The personnal decisions were basically made by the Mara Family. Of course they took input from the coach but made final decisions on all player acquisitions.

Patriots - Again, picking Drew Bledsoe, when the Patriots needed a franchise quarterback was a no brainer. Brian Fein could have made that call blindfolded.

The bone of contention was that Parcells wanted Tony Brackens and Robert Kraft wanted Terry Glenn. Bledsoe had no reliable receiver to throw the ball to (makes sense if you've got a 6'5 quarterback with a big arm. Get a fast receiver). Parcells gets into it with Kraft. Glenn avenges Parcells by having an outstanding year proving Parcells wrong.

The Patriots get to the Super Bowl and guess what Parcells does in front of the press? Complains about player acquisition, HIS contract, etc. C'mon...YOU"RE IN THE SUPER BOWL AND YOU PLAY THE PACKERS IN FIVE DAYS!! You should be focused on beating the Packers. If you saw Bill's press conference, most of it was him addressing his contract and relationship with Bob Kraft.

Many New England players felt that Parcells should have kept his mouth shut and concentrate on winning the Super Bowl. They knew he didn't have his heart or head in the game.

Jets - Parcells skips over to the Jets brings Curtis Martin with him. Scott Pioli comes on board and they draft Keyshawn Johnson and a bunch of others that would lead the Jets to the AFC Championship game against Denver in 1998. If you look back, you can see Pioli's handprints all over the team. Again, Parcells leaves in a huff because of not having full control of personnel decisions.

Cowboys - Here we go again! Filling the void with veterans like Drew Bledsoe and not wanting to play Tony Romo. Again, Stephen Jones, who is Jerry's son is underrated as far as a personnel guy and handling acquisitions.

Dolphins - We don't know yet. The Dolphins have so many needs so most of the picks are no-brainers. The fault really lies with Wayne H and the previous coaches not having the guts to endure several seasons of being in the dumps while rebuilding at the same time (which Wayne had to do anyway). The closest the Dolphins came to rebuilding was 1996 when Jimmy first came but there was a problem in the plans. His name was Dan Marino. Jimmy couldn't get Marino out because even an old Marino meant great ticket sales.

The one thing that I give Parcells credit for. he would have found a way to get rid of Marino like he did Emmitt Smith in Dallas (who should have retired after he broke Paytons record). Parcells is a rookie in his new office. Parcells is a motivator who motivates by fear. He's the only person I know of that is a throwback to the era of coaches who would not stand for garbage and the players know that.

If Mike Holmgren and Bill Parcells retired at the same time, Holmgren would get in before Parcells. The thing that I like about Holmgren is that he realized that he couldn't be GM and Coach at the same time because it was hurting the team (Seahawks). When he focused strictly on coaching, that's when the Seahawks got it together and went to the Super Bowl against the Steelers.

Hall of Fame? Parcells? Hmm. That's questionable. I say that if he retires and stays retired, he gets in. He's one of those borderline guys like Dan Reeves.

I disagree with Salguero. Whatever happens between Parcells while he's with the Dolphins means nothing.

[Defense54]

Bill Parcells gets too much credit for picking players and turning franchises around. There have been people behind the scenes that have made the decisions that Parcells has ALWAYS taken credit for. Not one press conference have I heard him in his last stops give Player personnel guys their props.

 

 

Bill picks his background people carefully and Surrounds himself with those guys. He finds potential where people see none and turns them into winners. Part of his philosophy is not looking for credit or thanks. You get paid and you do your job. Why has Bill walked away when a Team is on the cusp of winning? Because that's not what its about to him. He loves the game and he's old school. You don't whine and cry and you don't say thanks for something you were paid to do. 

[ethurst2]

 

Bill picks his background people carefully and Surrounds himself with those guys. He finds potential where people see none and turns them into winners. Part of his philosophy is not looking for credit or thanks. You get paid and you do your job. Why has Bill walked away when a Team is on the cusp of winning? Because that's not what its about to him. He loves the game and he's old school. You don't whine and cry and you don't say thanks for something you were paid to do. 

But D5499, if he is that way, then why rag on the guys on the way out the door? Bill's ego is big and he does want all the credit and thanks. Look at the Terrell Owens situation in Dallas. Every situation that he has left has been a messy divorce. I stand corrected, I think that he left the Giants because of health problems but there was trouble brewing there too.

Bill at a lot of stops was paid to coach but he's always left in controversy. I don't think that's going to happen with the Dolphins since Wayne is selling the team to Stephen Ross.

Any of us could see the Dolphins needs and address them. For example, you rebuild a team from the inside out which means Center, Guard, tackle, etc. Defense, Nose Guard/DT defensive ends and inside linebackers. It works every time.

If you took half the people on this site and put them in the Dolphins draft room, we would probably come up with the same plan with the exception of denver_bronco who would draft a placekicker. Probably the only disagreement we would have is at the QB position.

There's no way that Parcells/Ireland and that guy the head coach could have screwed this draft up. It was just no way possible. Miami has nothing so anything is better than nothing.

Parcells does have a huge ego. Like I said, he's a great motivator through fear but he's a rookie in the position that he's in. I still don't see Ireland or Sparano getting out from under his shadow.

[Dave Gray]

Parcells is a definitely for the Hall, regardless of what happens in Miami.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Parcells is a definitely for the Hall, regardless of what happens in Miami.

And it is pretty safe bet the Dolphins will have a better record each year under Parcells then they did in the year before his arrival.