Jim Corbett| USA TODAY Sports
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Bill Parcells never looked happier -- never felt so richly rewarded by an end-game coaching decision.
The legendary NFL franchise fixer had been tempted to save a fifth franchise -- the 2012 New Orleans Saints from close friend Sean Payton's year-long Bountygate suspension. But Parcells said no to his "narcotic" addiction by turning down a second head coaching offer in the last three years.
That decision allowed New Jersey's beloved football son to remain eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was voted in and will receive that dream retirement gift at Saturday's induction.
"Finally, I realized, 'It's over.' God, it is a special tribute," Parcells told USA TODAY Sports of entering the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, with six other 2013 class members.
"The Hall of Fame is very personal to me," said Parcells, sitting at his regular corner-of-the-bar perch inside the posh Saratoga (N.Y.) National Golf Club grill room, sipping an over-sized iced tea as he recalled his 19-year head coaching odyssey.
"When you hoist that Lombardi Trophy (as Super Bowl champion), it's only momentary. I'm a student of the game, my predecessors. To be in the Hall with guys like Al Davis, all he did for me. ... John Madden. ... It's a special fraternity of football guys."
Parcells, the only coach to lead four franchises to the postseason, seriously mulled un-retiring a fourth time when Payton was suspended by Commissioner Roger Goodell for his role in the Saints pay-to-injure scandal. But then Parcells came to his senses.
"Here's the narcotic of coaching: 'You know what, Parcells? You can coach 16 more games.' Then, you think about all the other stuff that goes with it," said Parcells, who ended with a 183-138-1 overall record and two Super Bowl titles with the New York Giants. "That's when I knew -- it's over. And I was the poster boy for not really being willing to accept that.
"I got offered another job within the last three years. I can't tell you who with. But I wasn't going to do it anyway. Because I'm happy now."
And to think his mother, Ida, chided him "to get a real job."
"When I got the Giants job ... my mother said, 'When are you going to get a real job like your brother Don, the banker?' "
Going in as a Giant
Despite overseeing dramatic turnarounds of the New England Patriots, New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys, Parcells reached out to Giants President/CEO John Mara when the Hall of Fame call came Feb. 2, on his fourth try.
"I said, 'John, I'd like to go in as a Giant.' And John said, 'We wouldn't have it any other way,' " Parcells said.
Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson seconded that notion.
"Bill is a Giant through and through. We just out-sourced him to other places," said Carson, who played on one of Parcells' championship Giants teams.
Not that Parcells, who turns 72 on Aug. 22, was a success with the Giants right from the start. His mother's words nearly proved prophetic when a 3-12-1 season as rookie coach of the team in 1983 almost got him fired.
But the late Giants owner Wellington Mara gave Parcells a second chance.
"We stunk, were a poorly-coached team. And I lost my mother and father within a six-week span," Parcells said of that first season.
Amid devastating loss, Parcells found his fiery Jersey wise guy voice and, "I made up my mind, 'I'm doing it my way,' " he said. "That's where I got the reputation of being brusque and an (expletive) at times. Normally, I'm a good listener. But I wasn't listening to too many people after that."
But the coach that Carson says could be heard "chewing guys out from half mile away" has mellowed and is doing well in his rehabilitation from reconstructive left shoulder surgery in May. Parcells directs a visitor's gaze across a ridge commanding a panoramic view above Lake Lonely. That serene setting for his summer sanctuary in horse-racing country -- he owns three Thoroughbred race horses -- is in tranquil contrast to the tension Parcells thrived on.
Parcells didn't become that banker. But he cashed in on a family trait inherited from his mom -- intuitively knowing how to push buttons.
"I like confrontation," said Parcells, chuckling. "It clears the air. Those players like Lawrence Taylor were high-strung people.
"My mother was highly confrontational. I could be a hot head. ... I encouraged players to yell back. We didn't have a big sensitivity level in that room."
Said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whom Parcells made peace with 10 years ago after a bitter, 1996 parting as coach over personnel power: "Bill is one of the great coaches of all time. I don't think there's any better motivator."
Summoning inner Lombardi
Super Bowl XXI MVP Phil Simms calls Parcells the modern-day Vince Lombardi, which is fitting given Parcells' former River Dell High (N.J.) basketball coach Mickey Corcoran played hoops for Lombardi at St. Cecilia in Englewood, N.J.
Corcoran told Parcells how "genuinely happy" he is for his protégé.
"He's really been a second father," Parcells says of his 92-year-old mentor, who will be in Canton. "He'd deliver an ass-kicking if you needed one, but he'd always put his arm around you afterward. I learned player damage control from Mickey."
Corcoran taught Parcells how to summon that inner Lombardi.
"I read all the Lombardi books, how he would beat his players up during the week, then, tell them how much he loved them before the game -- that was Bill," says Simms, CBS Sports' lead NFL analyst after a 14-year career as Giants quarterback.
"He was a wise cracker: 'Hey, so-and-so, you remind me of my daughter.'
"Bill encouraged guys to yell back. What Hall of Fame coach does that?" Simms said. "He pulled the chains of as many players as much as he could. He knew if you could handle it, it would make you better.
"Bill thrived on conflict."
Parcells was as hard on quarterbacks as Taylor was.
"My first opportunity came in 1988 against Philadelphia when Phil got hurt," says Jeff Hostetler, then the Giants' backup quarterback. "I played halfway decent. But I called a play wrong. I come to the sideline, looking for a little confidence boost.
"But Bill gets in my face and says, 'Hey look, you better call these blankety blank plays right -- or you'll be on the street tomorrow.' I go, 'Alrighty, at least I know where I stand.'
"I'm just thankful I had the opportunity to be on his teams," Hostetler says. "Because he always got results."
Consider Parcells' second season-opener, in 1984 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Parcells wanted Simms to know he was his guy after benching him in '83 for Scott Brunner.
"I was walking out of our locker room when Bill goes, 'Look, if you don't throw at least two interceptions you're not taking enough chances. I want you to be daring,'<TH>" Simms recalls.
"That was just Bill's way of saying: 'Let it fly.' "
Simms fired four touchdown passes for 409 yards in a 28-27 win.
"Look, I put Phil in a horse(expletive) position in 1983, so he was hot at me because I didn't even play him," Parcells says. "Phil Simms' personality and Bill Parcells' personality are a lot alike.
"I needed Phil. Phil needed me."
Fitting the "Big Tuna" used an oversized suitcase to underscore his signature motivational speech.
The 14-2 San Francisco 49ers, led by Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott, were poised for a Super Bowl three-peat Jan. 20, 1991, at Candlestick Park. Parcells addressed his team about packing for a road trip that would include a flight to Tampa, site of Super Bowl XXV -- if his underdogs upset the 49ers with no extra week between championship games and Super Bowl.
"I said, 'Nobody thinks we can win. The 49ers have reservations in Tampa. You can pack for two days. Or 10,' " Parcells says. "I pulled out a big suitcase and said, 'I'm packing for 10.'
"I still take pride in that."
After his 15-13 most memorable win, Parcells worked his magic once more at the last practice before facing the prolific-scoring Buffalo Bills, led by Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas.
"I told L.T. on the bus to practice, 'Start a fight with (left tackle) Jumbo Elliott.' He did," Parcells says. "Those guys were responders."
His smash-mouth responders edged the Bills 20-19 when Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood went wide right.
"They were averaging 30 points," Parcells says. "We had to figure out the best way to play them. My guys bought in, controlling the ball for 40 minutes, 30 seconds."
No question of loyalty
Parcells remains loyal to "my guys."
He donated $10,000 to 1986 co-captain/Canton presenter George Martin when the former defensive end walked 3,020 miles across the country in 2007 to raise $2 million-plus for ailing first responders to the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center in 2001.
"I had to call (Martin) 20 times," says Parcells, laughing, ever the motivator. "You know the best thing about that '86 group? They are everything a great team is supposed to be.
"It's still that way today how guys support each other. That's what it's all about."
That forever camaraderie is why a legendary button pusher who berated players for their championship good received eight phone calls from former players on Father's Day.
"Bill and I got in a shouting match once," Simms says. "It's always bothered me I yelled at Bill. Two days later when we decided to talk to each other, he was laughing.
"He says, 'Hey Simms: You really hated me. You wanted to hit me, didn't you?' He used psychology as well as he did X's and O's to put guys in position to have success.
"He should have been in Canton already," Simms says. "We're all really proud of Bill."
