Familiar Faces Are Back in Other Outfits

Who says you can’t go home again?

Dallas Cowboy Coach Bill Parcells proved you can, sweeping the Giants and Jets in New York to kick off his Tuna Tour, and this week three more coaches -- and a star running back -- are preparing to make the most of their homecomings.

Detroit’s Steve Mariucci is going back to San Francisco to face the 49ers; Seattle’s Mike Holmgren is headed to Green Bay; Indianapolis’ Tony Dungy is bound for Tampa; and Arizona’s Emmitt Smith, who set the all-time rushing record as a Cowboy, will be playing against his former teammates at Texas Stadium.

“I spent 13 years of my career in Dallas, became a man in Dallas, got married in Dallas, had a couple kids in Dallas,” Smith told reporters in Arizona on Wednesday. “This is a unique situation. It’s special in its own way.”

Mariucci was uncharacteristically tight-lipped when asked in a news conference Monday about returning to face the 49ers, the franchise that fired him in January after four playoff appearances in six seasons. Afterward, however, the Lion coach let his guard down with a small group of reporters.

“Let’s be honest,” he said. “I guess it’s different than going to Houston or Jacksonville, or somewhere else. ... It’s a place where I’m familiar. I know half the people in the stands. I’m familiar with the players.”

He was very popular with most of them, and was warmly embraced by the fans. The 49ers went 10-6 and won the NFC West in his final season, so his dismissal was something of a shock, even to him. But his relationship with General Manager Terry Donahue and team owner John York had deteriorated so severely, the situation was unworkable.

“Wounds?” Mariucci said when asked if the scars of being fired linger. “I don’t know about wounds. In this coaching profession, if we stay in it long enough, we are going to have some detours and some roads, some are smooth and some are bumpy, and all kinds of experiences as we go through a coaching career.”

Both the 49ers and Lions are 1-3, having won their openers before losing three games in a row. But the Colts are 4-0 under Dungy, who took over last season after being fired by the Buccaneers. Jon Gruden was hired by Tampa Bay and led the franchise to its first Super Bowl victory -- admittedly with a team Dungy played a major role in building.

The Colts and Buccaneers (2-1), who scored a combined 86 points in their last games, will meet Monday night at Raymond James Stadium.

“I hope the game doesn’t turn into a sideshow, with the game itself being a small part of things,” Dungy said at his news conference Monday. “Playing on Monday night, against the defending champions, we’re 4-0, that should be the story line. I think that would be the story line ... but it probably won’t be.”

Meanwhile, Seattle is 3-0 for the first time in five years and has a chance to start the season with four consecutive victories for the first time in franchise history. Holmgren, who coached the Packers from 1992 through ‘98, will make his second return to Lambeau Field since taking over as Seahawk coach in 1999. In his first season with the Seahawks, his team posted a 27-7 victory at Green Bay.

This time, Holmgren brings with him defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes, coach of the Packers in 1999, and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who was one of Brett Favre’s backups in Green Bay.

Holmgren returns to a place where he was 84-42 with two Super Bowl appearances. He even has a Green Bay street named after him; Holmgren Way intersects Lombardi Way one block east of Lambeau. Holmgren and Hank Stram (1-0 vs. Kansas City) are the only coaches with unblemished records against franchises they led to Super Bowl victories.

When he came back in 1999, Holmgren got an extremely warm welcome from Green Bay fans. At the time, he had to struggle to keep his emotions in check.

“It probably will be different this time,” he told Seattle reporters.

“But I think [Lambeau Field] is a special place. Now I worked there, of course, but even before I worked there ... for people that love football and this whole business, I think that should be a special place.”

Whether the legendary tundra was frozen or thawed, the Packers had astounding success on their home field when Holmgren was coach. They were 46-4 at Lambeau during his era, including 5-0 in the playoffs.

Smith won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys, and last season passed Walter Payton to move into first place as the league’s leading rusher. He was as popular in Dallas as Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, anyone. But he isn’t sure what kind of reception he’ll receive Sunday.

“I’m not going to be so bold as to think that I’m going to be received there with open arms,” Smith said. “Some of the people that I do know, I look forward to seeing them. I think the feeling is mutual. Outside of that, if I was a Cowboys fan, I would view me as the enemy. I am coming in with the Arizona Cardinals, and we’re coming in there with one mission and one goal in mind, and that’s to win the ball game.

“They can cheer me on as much as they want, and I can understand some of the boos if I get them. Because I’m on the other side of the fence.”

He and the Cardinals are also on the other side of the standings. The surprising Cowboys, who finished 5-11 the last three seasons, are 2-1 under Parcells and coming off two big victories in New York. The Cardinals are 1-3, and, despite a shocking upset of Green Bay, have been outscored, 130-57.

“I’m not surprised at the success they’ve had,” Smith said of his former team.

“We, on the other hand, have not been very consistent at all. We’ve been consistently poor, consistently shooting ourselves in the foot, consistently making immature mistakes, consistently turning the football over. We haven’t played solid football consistently enough.”

Smith defended his play, even though he is off to a disappointingly slow start with 193 yards in 59 carries with one touchdown, tying him for 10th in the NFC in rushing yards. His replacement in Dallas, Troy Hambrick, has slightly better numbers (240 yards in 61 carries, one touchdown).

More than anything else, the thing that might cause fans to boo Smith is the comments he made to Sports Illustrated this summer when, referring to his final season with the Cowboys, he said he felt like a “diamond surrounded by trash.”

Dallas linebacker Ebenezer Ekuban this week intimated the Cowboys are better off with Smith on another team’s roster.

“I think, perhaps, at times, the focus on the season was based on him getting his rushing record rather than us having a successful winning percentage,” Ekuban told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Good or bad, it was a distraction, so we have better things to focus on now as a team, and that’s winning games.”

Welcome home, Emmitt. Welcome home.