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.