Bucs/NFL

Legendary coaches meet with both needing wins

By JOANNE KORTH
Published September 17, 2006

Two of the NFL's most accomplished and respected coaches will match wits, game plans and motivational speeches tonight when the Redskins play the Cowboys.

Seven Super Bowl appearances.

Five Lombardi Trophies.

A combined 351 victories.

But in watching Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells pace their respective sidelines in their ongoing efforts to restore once-great franchises to greatness, one thing will become high-definition clear: It's really hard to win in the NFL.

Even these guys are struggling.

Gibbs and Parcells were 60-something coaches with nothing to prove when they were lured back to the NFL. Gibbs already was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the only coach to win three Super Bowls with three quarterbacks. Parcells was within a year of joining him but didn't make it to the fifth year of retirement before taking over the Cowboys.

So here they are, on national television, on opposite sidelines, in the same dire situation. After Week 1 losses, neither team can afford to fall to 0-2 in the highly competitive NFC East. One week into the season, their teams are already underachieving.

What gives?

Obviously, both are proven winners, though when it comes to player relations, Parcells intimidates and Gibbs inspires. Both work for powerful owners, the Cowboys' Jerry Jones and Redskins' Daniel Snyder, who spend freely in their pursuit of more money - er, championships - and apparently have an antidote for the salary cap.

This past offseason, the Redskins assembled the highest-paid coaching staff in NFL history, including newly acquired offensive coordinator Al Saunders, and spent big bucks on free agent receiver Antwaan Randle El and safety Adam Archuleta.

Jones gave Parcells a raise in the form of a contract extension. Then Jones signed controversial receiver Terrell Owens to a three-year, $25-million contract with a $5-million signing bonus and $5-million salary for this season.

When the coaches are 65, there is urgency.

Parcells is in his fourth season in Dallas, Gibbs his third in Washington. Each has taken his team to the playoffs once - Parcells in 2003, Gibbs in 2005 - and is expected to do so this season, which is tricky because they play in the same division.

Also, there is a strong sense this could be the final season for both coaches with Gibbs in the last year of a three-year contract and Parcells unlikely to hang around. Will they retire again having fallen short of their goals?

If so, it won't be hard to figure out why.

In attempting to restore past glory, neither Gibbs nor Parcells was willing to groom a young quarterback. They didn't have time. So they hand-picked men with whom they felt comfortable, Drew Bledsoe in Dallas and Mark Brunell in Washington. But both players are past their primes, in turn making their coaches look old and feel even older.

Not even great coaching can overcome that.

[Last modified September 17, 2006, 01:09:40]