The Comeback Kid

Football coach Bill Parcells returns a 4th time to football. Why?

By Colin Allen, published on January 01, 2003

Football coach Bill Parcells is out of retirement and back in the NFL, this time as the newest head coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Parcells, who leaves a winning legacy wherever he works—to include the New York Giants and Jets and the New England Patriots—will now take over a Texas football team that is currently ranked second to last in its conference and dead last in its division. Yet while Parcells has a proven ability to put down-and-out teams at the top of their game, he also tends to quickly—and rancorously—abandon those same teams shortly thereafter.

"It seems like that is his M.O.," says John Silva, Ph.D., a professor of sports psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "In almost every instance, he's hopped on when teams are on the upswing and done a good job at continuing that upward spiral."

But don't expect Parcells to change his ways and stick around long if he succeeds in improving the Dallas team. In his previous three stints as a head coach, Parcells left as soon as the teams reached their top form. "He always gets out when the team is about to skid a little bit," says Silva. "I don't see him as the kind of person that puts himself in vulnerable positions. He is the kind of guy that always likes to be on top."

Even so, Parcells does face a big professional challenge in taking another team to Super Bowl, which would invite an even greater personal challenge.

"If I were to put the gauntlet down to Bill Parcells, my challenge would be: 'Why don't you stay with a team for a while? Why don't you see if you can build a consistent and repeating championship team?'" poses Silva. "It's going to be really interesting to see if he can pull the rabbit out of the hat one more time."