INDIANAPOLIS -- Though nobody associates “party guy” with the coaches meeting for the second time in five seasons at the NFL’s annual Super corporate party, it’s appropriate that they’re at the Super Bowl this year.
The NFL coach with whom Giants coach Tom Coughlin and New England coach Bill Belichick get associated ad nauseam, Bill Parcells, could be announced Saturday as a 2012 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Both, of course, show surface Parcells trademarks — a cutting sarcasm with players; a game week flintiness with the media moistened by the occasional dry wit; an affinity for ball control (Coughlin) or big linebackers and defensive linemen (Belichick). And, oh, yeah, an ability to win.
Belichick spent six years as the Giants’ defensive coordinator under Parcells, one year as a defensive assistant with the Patriots and another three years as the Jets’ defensive coordinator under Parcells. Coughlin handled the Giants’ receivers during Parcells’ last three years with the Giants.
“I respect a lot of things about Tom — his evaluation of talent, the way he attacks teams, his consistency, his discipline, his team’s toughness, their resiliency — I would say all of those things,” Belichick said. “Bill has a lot of those characteristics as a coach. I don’t know who rubs off on whom. That was the way Tom was as an assistant coach. He was very disciplined and very detail-oriented. He demanded a lot from his players. He was fair, but firm, like he is now. Tom is a good guy, and he has a good sense of humor. He is a good guy to be around.”
Pouring it on
Given the opportunity to throw roses at Belichick, Coughlin said, “Bill is going to work very hard, as we are, at showing you something and it really isn’t what you think it is. You really have to add an element of that into how you prepare. He’s always been an exceptional defensive coach trained by the best, by Parcells. He’s also become an outstanding offensive coach. Tom Brady has helped him to really diversify and get into areas offensively that only lead to the particular strengths of the individuals involved, and he’s done a very good job of that. He’s always been an outstanding special teamer because he was a special-teams coach at one time.”
Though other coaches served as mentors for each over the years, each can easily recall important elements they learned from Parcells.
“There was a feeling of pressure; the finger was always on the coaching staff and how they prepared their team and how the players responded to that,” Coughlin said. “Ultimately, anyone who was around Parcells for any length of time learned how to win. That’s the biggest thing I took away from it. When I left and became the head coach at Boston College, it was an ideal time for me because I had just come off a Super Bowl championship. My confidence was very high and I believed in how our system worked, the infinite details that went into coaching assignments and working with players, etc. That’s the way my head coaching opportunities began. I think you always stimulate yourself. No matter what year it is and what the circumstance is, what I’ve always done is taken an offseason and launched myself into something that I can improve upon.”
Teacher-student
Belichick recalled the four years with New England and with the Jets under Parcells after he’d been fired as Cleveland’s head coach.
“All of the things that you do as a head coach, when you become an assistant again, you understand more what the head coach is going through when you have been a head coach,” Belichick said. “Bill was very generous in some of the information and experiences he shared with me during those four years from 1996 to 1999 — the situations he was dealing with, the things that would come up with the team and how you would handle this and how you would handle that. Our relationship is a little bit different because I had been a head coach. He would say, ‘Look, you’ve been a head coach. Here is the situation. How would you handle this or that?’ And I would watch him handle it.”
Here’s something else to put on your nachos Sunday: if the Giants win, that’s two Super Bowl titles for Coughlin with the Giants after eight seasons, spaced four years apart. That’s exactly Parcells’ Super Bowl line with the Giants.
Belichick already has surpassed Parcells’ Super Bowl numbers. If New England wins, that’s four Super Bowl wins in five trips for Belichick, tying Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain-era coach Chuck Noll for most Super Bowl victories. He already is only one short of former Dolphins and Colts coach Don Shula’s record of coaching in six Super Bowls.
In other words, filling out their Hall of Fame résumés.
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