The thrill is gone, and so is Parcells

The thrill is gone, and so is Parcells

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

By VINNY DITRANI
BERGEN COUNTY RECORD

Seeing that football trickle off holder Tony Romo's fingertips was not the way Bill Parcells planned on ending his coaching career. In fact, had his Cowboys gotten by that game in Seattle, he thought they had a chance to go all the way to the Super Bowl, which would have been a more proper venue for his final coaching appearance.

Parcells thought despite their late swoon, his Cowboys had a shot at doing something in the postseason. That's why the 21-20 loss to the Seahawks was particularly agonizing to him. Not that a win would have made him feel much better.

While that agony of defeat remained and even intensified with each loss, the thrill of victory was gone. And that's why Parcells announced his retirement from coaching Monday.

It has been an extremely difficult past few weeks for him, weighing the advantages of staying on at least one more season and coaching a good, young team with a good, young quarterback, against the anguish he experienced each week, win or lose.

Physically he says he is fine, that the problems he had experienced in the past no longer are a concern.

Mentally, however, it is another story.

"The losses still hurt, they stay with me," he said. "But the wins, they are nothing more than relief. I used to be able to enjoy a couple of beers the night after a game, have a little fun and then get back down to work the next day. I can't do that anymore. Right after a win my mind starts thinking about the next game, the next opponent."

That was evident after the Cowboys' win at Giants Stadium on Dec 3. The game was for first place in the NFC East. Leading up to it, Parcells had taken a huge personnel gamble: He cut placekicker Mike Vanderjagt, the former Colt who was signed in the off-season to solve a lingering problem he had with the Cowboys.

In his place he signed veteran Martin Gramatica, who had not kicked in more than a year. The move was risky. While Vanderjagt had not been as dependable as Parcells had hoped, at least he had been active during the first 12 weeks of the season while Gramatica was couch-potatoing.

At first it looked like a mistake. Gramatica woefully missed a 44- yard field goal try on the Cowboys' first possession. But with one second left, the newest Cowboy kicked a 46-yarder – his third field goal of the game – for a 23-20 win.

You'd think Parcells would have been ecstatic, beating the Giants in a key NFC East game, in the Meadowlands no less, and with a kicker he gambled on being better than the guy he had. Yet a visitor to the team bus after the game found the coach talking only about the New Orleans Saints, Dallas' next opponent, and how they had trounced the 49ers earlier that day.

Any joy from that huge win had dissipated during the short walk from the locker room to the bus.

If there is no satisfaction, no elation, no enjoyment anymore, then why continue? That was the question put to Parcells during the past few weeks. Apparently he could not find the answer. So he decided to walk away.

"I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, and can't get back to sleep," he said. "My mind will be going over and over things. I don't know why it's like that. I can't explain it. Maybe I'm crazy, I don't know. But that's the way it is."

Certainly Cowboy fans are going to feel angered and deserted by the move, especially since the two-time Super Bowl-winning and one-time Super Bowl-losing coach never delivered them a playoff win.

But no one can dispute the team is light-years ahead of where it was when Parcells arrived. It not only was bereft of talent, but a cesspool when it came to character. Many of the league's worst resided in that locker room.

The thought of finishing the job, something he considered within reach in a year or two, made the decision a tough one for Parcells. His players wanted him to stay, owner Jerry Jones told him he was not staying too long, that the game hadn't past him by. The team will be some $20 million under the cap and has 10 draft picks. The upside to coaching the Dallas Cowboys in 2007 is tremendous.

But to Bill Parcells, without a few beers and laughs after every win, it's just not worth it.

E-mail: ditrani@northjersey.com