Biography of Bill Parcells

The improvement was remarkable. From having the worst record in football in back-to-back seasons, 3-13 to 1-15, the Jets climbed to 9-7 last year, showing one of the biggest improvements in pro football history. It was a direct testimony to their new head coach and chief of football operations Bill Parcells, a man who had already turned around the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. In four short years as head coach, Parcells directed the Giants to a Super Bowl championship and added a second title four years later. Then he picked up the struggling Patriots and in another four campaigns drove them to the AFC Championship and Super Bowl XXXI. Parcells, one of only two coaches in NFL history to have led two separate teams to the Super Bowl, enters the 1998 season as the third winningest active coach with 128 victories (in 13 years), trailing only Atlanta’s Dan Reeves (158 in 17 years)and Kansas City’s Marty Schottenheimer (142 in 14 seasons). Parcells and Miami’s Jimmy Johnson are the only active coaches to have claimed two Super Bowl titles.

While Parcells was pleased with the development of the jets last season, make no mistake about it, his goal remains the same as it has been in each of his coaching stops: to win the Super Bowl. “You do everything that you can try to give the program credibility,” he said, “It’s about getting your players to compete in all facets of the game. If you can do that you should have a team compete and be in the thick of things.”

As the New York jets 11th full time head coach, Parcells and his loyal staff of assistants set out in 1997 to turn around the fortunes of an entire organization. And while the goal of Parcells and everyone associated with the team is to reach the pinnacle of the sport by claiming the franchise’s second Super Bowl title, a 9-7 record helped to re-establish the Lets as an AFC contender. “I think the players have a right to be fairly proud of what they did (in 1997),” said Parcells. “They showed tremendous improvement as individuals and as a team. I think, that by and large, we played about as well as we could, throughout the season. The games were competitive and the team was in every one until the last five minutes. Not many teams can say that.”

Under Parcells, the Jets came within one game of equaling their victory total for the past three seasons (6-10 in 1994, 3-13 in ‘95 and 1-15 in’ 96). The improvement of eight games tied for the second best all-time, just behind the 1929 New York Football Giants and the 1963 Oakland Raiders, both of whom improved by nine wins over their preceding year. The turnaround to a plus eight was accomplished by only Al Davis’ nine-game improvement and by current Baltimore head coach Ted Marchibroda, who guided the 1992 Indianapolis squad to 9-7 after a 1-15 season in 1991.

“I told the players at the end of the 1997 season that we had to continue to improve on what we started in 1997,” Parcells said. “I assured them that I would do everything possible to continue to upgrade this team. I told them that nobody could stand still. You either get better or you get worse, it’s that simple.”

Parcells’ marked words at the conclusion of the 1997 season appeared right on the mark, as the Jets sought to improve by signing highly-regarded restricted free agent Pro Bowl RB Curtis Martin off the roster of the New England patriots and C Kevin Mawae, one of the top young offensive linemen in the NFL. The team also added FB Keith Byars, G Todd Burger, DE Anthony Pleasant and C-G Mike Gisler, in addition to selecting 12 players in the 1998 draft.

During his 13 seasons as an NFL head coach, Parcells is 128-92-1 including victories in Super Bowls XXI and XXV with the New York Giants and an appearance in Super Bowl XXXI with the New England Patriots. His teams have finished in either 1st or 2nd place eight times in 13 years. Parcells inherited a Patriots team that went 2-14 in 1992 and, within two years, helped guide the team to a 10-6 mark and its first playoff game in eight years. Then, in his fourth year, the Patriots went 11-5, good for 1st place in the AFC East and a 1st round playoff bye, setting up two home playoff wins that put them into the Super Bowl against Green Bay. That accomplishment established Parcells along with Don Shula (Miami and Baltimore) as one of only two coaches to lead different teams to Super Bowls.
In his previous head coaching tenure with the New York Giants, Parcells took over a 4-5 team from the strike-shortened 1982 season and, following a 3-12-1 campaign in 1983, enjoyed a remarkable run of 9, 10, 14, 10, 12, and 13-win seasons between 1984 and 1990 that saw the Giants win two Super Bowls, three division titles, and have only one losing year. Parcells won NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1986 and 1989.

Prior to engineering a championship football atmosphere in New England, Parcells spent two years as an analyst for NBC Sports, serving in roles ranging from studio host to color commentator. Given medical clearance by his physicians, Parcells resumed his coaching career in New England, on January 21, 1993.

After a playing career that included stops at Colgate and Wichita Sate University, he began his coaching career in 1964 as a defensive assistant at Hastings College (NE). He returned to Wichita Sate in 1965 as a defensive line coach before coming back east to coach at Army. After four years at West Point (1966-69), Parcells left for stints at Florida State, Vanderbilt, and Texas Tech. His first head coaching position came at the Air Force Academy in 1978. It was then on to the NFL, as Parcells joined Ray Perkins’ staff with the Giants as an assistant in 1979. he moved briefly for one season to the Patriots in 1980 as linebackers’ coach on Ron Erhardt’s staff before returning to the Giants as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, the position he held until taking over as head coach in 1983.

Born August 22, 1941, in Englewood, NJ, Parcells recently built a house in Sea Girt, NJ. He and his wife, Judy, have three daughters—Suzy, Jill and Dallas, and two grandchildren, Kyle and Kendall.