Parcells Engineers a Great Turnaround

People who downplay Bill Parcells’ record make two points:

1, Would he have won any Super Bowls without Lawrence Taylor?

2, Would New England have won the AFC title last season if Parcells hadn’t been forced to draft Terry Glenn, the man he didn’t want and ended up calling “she.”

Answer in both cases: Probably not.

Yet, while the Patriots struggle under Pete Carroll, Parcells has taken the New York Jets from 1-15 last season to 8-4 and first place in the AFC East. All of which puts the Jets on the brink of one of the great turnarounds in modern NFL history.

By beating Minnesota 23-21 Sunday, the Jets ensured themselves at least a .500 season--no big deal in San Francisco and Dallas but a very big deal in Hempstead, N.Y.

“This was our best win,” Parcells said. “It was a big, big, big win for us. I don’t know if we’re going to win another game, but even if we don’t, this will serve us well.”

The Jets are likely to win another, two more at least. That would make them 10-6. In 1992, Ted Marchibroda took the Colts from 1-15 to 9-7. The 1975 Colts went 2-12 to 10-4; the 1976 Patriots went from 3-11 to 12-4; and the 1988 Bengals went from 4-11 in the strike year to 12-4.

Parcells’ hunger for control ignores the fact that he’s not a great personnel man. He also never saw a contract he didn’t want to break. But he is a great coach, his imperious and sometimes condescending ways notwithstanding.

And he’s moved from the Giants to the television booth to the Patriots to the Jets and kept his magic touch, unlike his recycled contemporary, Mike Ditka, who said after New Orleans’ loss in Atlanta on Sunday, “I don’t have it any more.”

“Four draft picks was a bargain,” Miami’s Jimmy Johnson said after the Jets were ordered by the league to compensate New England for Parcells’ services.

Indeed.

Parcells has shifted quarterbacks in mid-game--Glenn Foley for Neil O’Donnell--and won. Then, with Foley hurt, he went back to O’Donnell and beat the Vikings, pushing just the right buttons.

“I wanted to show people I’m a starting quarterback in this league,” said O’Donnell, who was 23 of 34 for 242 yards and a touchdown.

“People” in this case meant Parcells.

The Jets also showed something else: They went without a penalty until the final seconds Sunday.

Then they got a big one--Victor Green picked up the ball in celebration after the Vikings’ Brad Johnson failed to get into the end zone on a sneak with 13 seconds left. He got a delay of game penalty and Minnesota went on to score.

Fortunately for Green, the two-point conversion was stuffed. But Green will hear about it.

Phil Simms heard an earful when he threw what Parcells thought was a bad third-down pass on the Giants’ fourth possession in a 1990 game in which they had scored the first three times they touched the ball. Mark Bavaro heard about it when Parcells thought he hadn’t gone all out for a pass in the Giants’ 1987 Super Bowl rout of Denver.

It’s the Tuna’s way.

So is winning.

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BUTTHEAD: Hard-headed has always been a compliment for football players. But Washington quarterback Gus Frerotte took it a step too far Sunday night.

After Frerotte scrambled for what proved the Redskins’ only touchdown in their 7-7 tie with the Giants, he celebrated by head-butting the padded concrete wall at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium.

He ended up with a sprained neck.

“I was fired up. I was excited,” Frerotte said. “I’ve butted heads with people many times and this just happened to jam me up. It was a stupid thing to do.”

Said coach Norv Turner: “I’ve never thought to tell a guy not to hit the wall after a touchdown. So we’ll put that in our preseason coaches’ manual next year.”

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HARD HAT: George Young, the Giants’ general manager and co-chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, helped install the new rule that penalizes players 15 yards for removing their helmets.

It helped his team Sunday night.

With the Redskins driving toward field-goal range at the end of overtime, Washington’s Michael Westbrook took off his helmet and slammed it to the ground, angered that his catch had been denied. Washington was pushed back 15 yards and got only 10 back. The Redskins were left with a desperation 54-yard field-goal attempt by Scott Blanton that wasn’t close.

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GHOST BUSTERS: The Packers finally beat Dallas after losing seven straight to the Cowboys under coach Mike Holmgren.

“I have exorcised one demon,” he said. “Next week, I have another to deal with.”

That demon is the Vikings, whom the Packers play Dec. 1 in a Monday night game at the Metrodome.

Green Bay has lost all five games it’s played in Minnesota since Holmgren has been coach. It coincides with the arrival in Minnesota of Dennis Green, with whom Holmgren coached as an assistant in San Francisco.