Bill Parcells just retired from the Cowboys

[The Squadfather]

just heard it on Fox News.

[body88]

IRVING, Texas -- Bill Parcells retired from coaching Monday, leaving the Dallas Cowboys after four seasons and ending a stellar career that featured three Super Bowl appearances and two championships.

The announcement came 15 days after the Cowboys' season ended with a heartbreaking playoff loss in Seattle. He'd been at his office nearly every day since, and there were other indications that the 65-year-old coach was returning for a fifth year in Dallas and 20th as an NFL head coach.

"I am retiring from coaching football," Parcells said in a statement. "I want to thank Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones for their tremendous support over the last four years. Also, the players, my coaching staff and others in the support group who have done so much to help. Dallas is a great city and the Cowboys are an integral part of it. I am hopeful that they are able to go forward from here."

The announcement came in a morning e-mail. There was no immediate statement from Jones, the team owner, although one was planned for later in the day. There were no immediate plans for a news conference.

"I am in good health and feel lucky to have been able to coach in the NFL for an extended period of time," Parcells said. "I leave the game and the NFL with nothing but good feelings and gratitude to all the players, coaches and other people that have assisted me in that regard."

Parcells won two Super Bowls with the Giants. He came to Dallas four seasons ago energized by the challenge of restoring glory to "America's Team." He went 34-32 and definitely left the Cowboys better than he found them, but his tenure ultimately may be remembered for the lack of a playoff victory.

He came to Dallas four seasons ago energized by the challenge of restoring glory to "America's Team." While he definitely left the Cowboys better than he found them, his tenure ultimately may be remembered for the lack of a playoff victory.

His teams went 0-2 in the postseason. Dallas appeared headed to a breakthrough win this month in Seattle, but Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo botched the hold on a short field goal with a little more than a minute left and the Cowboys lost 21-20. They lost four of their last five games, including the final three, after holding a two-game division lead in December.

Dallas hasn't won a playoff game since 1996, easily the longest skid in the history of the franchise that's been to a record eight Super Bowls.

Parcells' legacy with the Cowboys can be framed this way: Instead of joining Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as coaches who led them to championships, he leaves lumped with Chan Gailey and Dave Campo.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

[Tre]

Way to go, T.O.

Now, just listened a quick quote from ESPN's Skip Bayless who argues that Bill Parcells was about to be fired by Jerry Jones.

I think he's full of shit.

Cowboys fans, what say you?

[Dos Equis]

*APPLAUSE*  Bring back Barry Switzer!   

[pumpster]

LAME. Balless in the face of adversity once again. Never won without Belichick.

Tried to bail last week by attempting to become Giants' GM; thankfully they exercised common sense and declined the offer.

[Tre]

All he does is turn losing franchises into winners.

Oakland needs this man.

[ATHEIST]

LAME. Balless in the face of adversity once again. Never won without Belichick.

Tried to bail last week by attempting to become Giants' GM; thankfully they exercised common sense and declined the offer.

 sure. 

[Camel Jockey]

They have a pretty good unit, so why is he walking out now? You can't say it's because of TO's antics because he didn't have any mid-way through the year.

[Dos Equis]

All he does is turn losing franchises into winners.

Oakland needs this man.

True.  He could clean up that mess, but I doubt he could work under the thumb of Al Davis. 

[MidniteRambo]

I cannot believe that any coach would voluntarily let his career end the way it did in the Cowboys' last game against Seattle. 

[Dos Equis]

I cannot believe that any coach would voluntarily let his career end the way it did in the Cowboys' last game against Seattle. 

I don't know.  He has already been to the mountain top.  He also helped make the Cowboys respectable again. 

[MidniteRambo]

I don't know.  He has already been to the mountain top.  He also helped make the Cowboys respectable again. 

I'm not disagreeing.  I just can't imagine going out that way, with it being your last memory of the game as a coach.  It boggles the mind.

[body88]

I'm not disagreeing.  I just can't imagine going out that way, with it being your last memory of the game as a coach.  It boggles the mind.

He has retired 4 times now.  Remeber the comments he made after he retired from the jets?

[MidniteRambo]

He has retired 4 times now.  Remeber the comments he made after he retired from the jets?

Excellent point.  Parcells is similar to Nick Saban/Larry Brown in certain respects.  It just seems that he is getting a little old to still be playing that game.

[pumpster]

Excellent point.  Parcells is similar to Nick Saban/Larry Brown in certain respects.  It just seems that he is getting a little old to still be playing that game.

Actually 65 years old isn't old now; it's just his attitude and bloated physique that makes him seem 80.


Owens: Parcells’ retirement ‘was needed’
Cowboys receiver says coach's old-school ways not good for team

Terrell Owens says that Bill Parcells' retirement can only be a good thing for the Cowboys, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Speaking to the newspaper from Miami, where he is recovering from finger surgery, Owens said his play, and that of the Cowboys, was disappointing in the past season. He said the results are partly attributed to Parcells.

“I am just hoping his retirement brings promise to what the team has to offer,” Owens said. “This past year was a big letdown. On paper we were as good as anybody we played against every week. The end result didn’t show that. Our play was not indicative of what we could have done. What we should have done. Hopefully, the owner will hire a coach to take the team to the next level.”

T.O. said that Parcells fostered an unhealthy locker room environment.

“Sometimes change is good,” Owens told the paper. “ I think it was needed.”

Owens said Parcells sometimes wouldn't talk to him for weeks, and did not offer and words of encouragement after his accidental overdose.

“Coming into this season and this situation, I wanted to be positive,” Owens told the Star-Telegram. “When I talked to him for the first time we left an impression on each other. I still think he is a great guy. But he is like my grandmother. You love the person, but they are stuck in their old-school ways. You can’t move them from their way of thought.”
“You don’t know who is doing what,” Owens said. “You don’t know who is calling plays. That is why our offense was up and down. You saw that at the end of the year. It filtered off. We as a team felt the frustration. I felt the frustration. But Bill is Bill.”

Owens admitted that he did not play up to his potential, but he also said that he didn't fit into the offense.

“I was underutilized in the offense,” Owens said. “A new coach can be good for the Cowboys. It’s not just me. But my teammates know I could have done more. I wasn’t used as a No. 1 receiver. If you don’t involve a guy, that person is not going to be as productive as he can be. That’s how I felt.”

[pumpster]

Sports Illustrated:

Is that all there was? Did the entire Bill Parcells in Dallas era add up to nothing more than a ho-hum 34-32 record and a pair of playoff losses in four years? Talk about much ado about very little. So much hype. So much hoopla. But a bit light on the fulfilled promise.

Parcells walked away from the NFL again Monday, and this time it sounds like it's for good. But how can we ever be sure with the Tuna? His retirement sagas have been going on for 16 years now, starting when he left the league the first time, in the wake of the Giants' stirring 20-19 win over Buffalo in January 1991's Super Bowl XXV.

Parcells kept chasing that elusive third Super Bowl ring -- first in New England, then with the Jets, and finally in Dallas -- but without success. If this is really it, let the record show he hadn't led a team to the Super Bowl in 10 years (the Patriots, in Super Bowl XXXI), hadn't won a playoff game since the Jets defeated Jacksonville in the divisional round in 1998, and hadn't won more than 10 regular season games since those '98 Jets went 12-4 and made it to the AFC title game.

He's a Hall of Fame coach to be sure, but he didn't exactly add to his legacy with his final round-up in Dallas. Parcells' Cowboys were never dominant, and try as he might to prove that he could win the Super Bowl without the aid of a Bill Belichick-coached defense, he never even got close to reaching that goal.

He leaves Dallas better off than when he arrived -- the Cowboys were 5-11 in the three seasons before Parcells -- but the team's 9-7, one-and-done playoff appearance this season hardly resembled a dynasty in the making. After surging to an 8-4 mark and first place in the NFC East on the strength of Tony Romo-mania, the Cowboys looked poised to make some real noise in the watered-down NFC. Parcells even had that old twinkle in his eye when he talked about his team's playoff chances and where its 2006 season might be headed.

But it all came undone in December as Romo's game regressed, the secondary slumped in embarrassing fashion, and Parcells appeared almost powerless to stop the slide. Dallas lost three of its last four games, with all the defeats coming at home, as the Saints, Eagles and, most galling of all, the always tame Lions humbled the Cowboys at Texas Stadium.

Dallas still made the playoffs -- it was hard to avoid them in the NFC this season -- but its first-round loss at Seattle seemed to perfectly sum up how the ride had ended for these Cowboys, with Romo losing his grip and his magic touch at the worst possible time.

If that was our last look at Parcells in coaching mode, then our lingering image will be of him walking off the field in Seattle, a stunned look in his eyes, and all of his 65 years showing in the deepening lines on his face.

It was not the script or the ending Parcells envisioned for himself when he accepted Jerry Jones' offer and the challenge of rebuilding America's Team. He goes out with great fanfare, but with his greatest successes being a long way in the past.

For Parcells, Dallas was not the denouement that we expected.