prominence has not arrived yet.
Remember, it was Parcells who said after that 2003 season success is not judged by one season. It was he who said you have to have success year after year after year to qualify a sound foundation.
So the Cowboys are close. They have put together back-to-back winning records for the first time in a decade, 1995-96 the last time that was accomplished. That is progress.
They have put together three winning seasons in four years. That hasn't take place since 1995-98. So that too is progress.
But . . . prominence, and a Super Bowl appearance does not necessarily define prominence, has not arrived yet.
So, you ask, and rightfully so, why are reports coming out of New York insisting Parcells has been interested in becoming the New York Giants' next general manager?
Look, I'm not saying I know what went on, but to me that smells of an agent shaking the bushes, riding lead to see if he smells some interest. I mean, sure Parcells is big business, but would he try to ace his own son-in-law out of a GM job, since New England's Scott Pioli was talking to the Giants about said job until pulling out yesterday?
So you ask, then if he's coming back, why has he not said so? Same as last year, and I'm not saying Parcells is angling for another raise, but to me a head coach with one year left on his contract is an impotent head coach when it comes to free agency and putting a staff together.
So you ask, then if he's coming back, why allow defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer to make a lateral move with Atlanta, which figures to announce his hiring as defensive coordinator any hour now? Because with Bill being year to year, Zimmer likely will find more security in Atlanta, where former coaching cohort Bobby Petrino has just been hired as head coach. You'd figure no matter Petrino signed a five-year contract, he's at least there for three years. If Zim gets three more years in the NFL, that's 16, meaning his pension is fully vested at the average of his six highest salaries.
What would you do?
Nope, I've seen nothing to suggest Parcells doesn't still want to do what he does. Coach football. That is who he is.
"Football is what I am, it's what I do," Parcells said that day four years ago, and listening to him this year, you get the idea he's envious of buddy Bob Knight still doing what he does after all these years.
He also said while trying to define himself after leaving the TV studio analyst business to coach the Cowboys, "When you're a guy like me, you can just do what I've been doing in the last couple of years only so long, and it gets to you."
See, Parcells realizes - and has said - this is his last go-around. At 65, he's not getting another coaching gig. Takes a lot of energy to start over, because chances are no one is going to hand him the reins of a ready-made team. That would mean he might be 70 until he gets that next team on a sound foundation.
So me, I say he gives it one more year, and as close as the Cowboys were this year, if Tony Romo indeed is the Cowboys man they've been looking for at quarterback since Bill arrived, next year's edition just might be the final corner of the foundation. Only then can he move on, knowing it's been a job well done.
Not one unfinished.
Why all so confusing and convoluted?
A man once said of Parcells, "He's the most duplicitous person I've ever known."
Duplicitous, it means, the disguising of one's true intentions by deceptive words or action. Duplicitous.
Wonder if that is a fancy way of dressing up duping?
