46 Facts About Bill Parcells

1.

Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells was born on August 22,1941 and is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League for 19 seasons.

2.

Bill Parcells rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 to 1990, where he won two Super Bowl titles.

3.

Bill Parcells retired following the second Super Bowl, but came out of retirement in 1993 to become the head coach of the Patriots, another struggling franchise at the time.

4.

Bill Parcells left the Patriots after their Super Bowl loss and became the head coach of the Jets, who went from a one-win season to appearing in the AFC Championship Game by his second year.

5.

Bill Parcells retired for a second time in 1999, but returned again in 2003 as the head coach of the Cowboys.

6.

Bill Parcells was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

7.

Bill Parcells was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on August 22,1941.

8.

Bill Parcells grew up in the nearby town of Hasbrouck Heights.

9.

Bill Parcells's father disapproved of a career in sports and wanted him to study law, so the younger Parcells declined the offer.

10.

Bill Parcells soon transferred to the University of Wichita, where he played linebacker and earned a physical education degree.

11.

Bill Parcells, showing the kind of preparation that would make him a successful coach later, frequently arrived early to training sessions, in order to set up a radio.

12.

Bill Parcells would try several locations in the gym to get a signal.

13.

Bill Parcells was drafted in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions as an offensive lineman, but he was released by the team before playing a single NFL game after Parcells reportedly quit the team after a hot morning workout.

14.

Bill Parcells was considering attending law school or becoming a franchise owner for Pizza Hut, where he had worked in college.

15.

Bill Parcells began as an assistant coach at Hastings before moving on to Wichita State, Army, Florida State, Vanderbilt, and Texas Tech.

16.

In 1979, Bill Parcells accepted an offer to become the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants under head coach Ray Perkins but, before the season started, he resigned and took a job with a land development company in Colorado.

17.

Bill Parcells called it the most miserable year of his life.

18.

When Perkins announced on December 15,1982, that he was leaving the Giants at the end of the season to become head coach and athletic director at the University of Alabama, the Giants announced that Bill Parcells would succeed him as head coach.

19.

When Bill Parcells took over in 1983, the team had posted just one winning season in the previous ten years.

20.

Bill Parcells is credited as the first coach to be doused with Gatorade at the end of a Super Bowl, which led to a Super Bowl tradition.

21.

Bill Parcells led the Giants to a second Super Bowl in 1990.

22.

Bill Parcells retired from football after Super Bowl XXV due to health problems.

23.

Bill Parcells hosted a local sports show in New York with Mike Francesa entitled Around the NFL.

24.

In 1992, Bill Parcells made a handshake agreement to become head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

25.

At the last minute, Bill Parcells opted not to take the job.

26.

Bill Parcells did not feel the situation was right for him at that time.

27.

Bill Parcells was offered by his friend Ron Wolf to become the new head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1992, but Bill Parcells declined, saying that he needed open heart surgery.

28.

Bill Parcells left the Patriots after disagreements with owner Robert Kraft, who had bought the team in early 1994, after Bill Parcells' first year as head coach.

29.

Bill Parcells had effectively been the team's general manager since arriving in New England, but felt Kraft would not allow him enough input in player personnel decisions.

30.

Bill Parcells wanted to draft defensive end Tony Brackens with their first-round choice, but was vetoed by Kraft.

31.

Bill Parcells again orchestrated a remarkable turnaround in his first year with the Jets.

32.

Bill Parcells emphasized the importance of not obtaining a "7th loss" but they did lose to the Colts and then to the New York Giants the following week.

33.

In 1999, Bill Parcells retired from football for the second time, vowing that he would not coach again.

34.

Bill Parcells remained with the Jets one more year as general manager.

35.

The practice of "earning the star" has become a permanent fixture of Cowboy tradition, with all of Bill Parcells' successors adopting the practice.

36.

Owens, whom Bill Parcells never referred to by name, but rather as "The Player", was fairly successful with the team.

37.

In week 7 of the 2006 season, Bill Parcells decided to replace veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe with fourth-year quarterback Tony Romo.

38.

Bill Parcells signed the quarterback in 2003 and helped him develop into a Pro Bowl quarterback by 2006.

39.

Bill Parcells would have entered the final year of his contract with the Cowboys in 2007, and had been facing questions all year as to whether he would return to the Cowboys to coach his final season.

40.

On December 19,2007, the Miami Herald reported that Bill Parcells had agreed to become the new Executive Vice President of Football Operations of the Miami Dolphins.

41.

However, the following day the Falcons formally announced that Bill Parcells had turned down the offer because of discussions with Miami.

42.

The new front office under Bill Parcells then signed over 20 little-known players in the free-agent market.

43.

On February 12,2014, Bill Parcells was reportedly interviewed by the Cleveland Browns in an executive capacity; however, both sides couldn't come to a deal.

44.

However, on March 6,2014, Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Gil Brandt would report Bill Parcells had met with Browns owner Jimmy Haslem as a courtesy consultant.

45.

Since 2014, Bill Parcells has on occasion given advice to the Browns, such as in 2017 when Bill Parcells gave his endorsement to hiring John Dorsey as their new general manager, and in 2018 when he was given the same role as in 2014 by consulting the Browns front office in searching for their next franchise quarterback in the 2018 NFL Draft.

46.

Seventeen of Bill Parcells' coaching assistants became head coaches in the NFL or NCAA:.