Today I stumbled across two interesting and unrelated pieces that focus on former coaches. While I have been guilty of criticizing Bill Parcells, I have been known to defend Barry Switzer (even if I generally lose the debate . . .).
ESPN ran a piece on Switzer, giving him a little bit [emphasis on little] of credit for the 1995 season:
Barry Switzer enjoyed a triumphant career which spanned four decades. He spent a total of 32 seasons patrolling the sidelines in the college and professional ranks. While his methods were sometimes questioned, few could argue with the results . . .
. . .Switzer. . .etched his name in the NFL history books, leading the Cowboys to victory over the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. He became only the second coach to win both a college football national championship and a Super Bowl. The other, ironically, was Jimmy Johnson, whom Switzer had replaced in Dallas in 1994.
After compiling a 45-26 record in four seasons with the Cowboys, Switzer decided to call it quits on a remarkable career, but is still willing to lend a helping hand to owner Jerry Jones.
“Jerry calls me every now and then and asks me to take a look at film of a running back,” Switzer said. “I guess because we had so many No. 1 picks.”
“Remarkable career” wasn’t anything uttered after the 1997 season, but still an interesting take.
Here is a video to accompany the story.
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Gil LeBreton had a piece about the recent blame-fest that has surrounded former coach Bill Parcells. I’ve been guilty of jumping on this bandwagon. With this post, perhaps I’m off.
Let’s all blame Bill, shall we?
Blame Bill Parcells for the Cowboys’ four seasons of mostly disappointment. Blame him for the wasted draft picks. Blame him for Drew Henson, Chad Hutchinson, and as long as we’re at it, for Drew Bledsoe.
Blame Parcells for failing to recognize the inner saintliness of Terrell Owens. Blame him for the fumbled field goal snap in Seattle. Blame him for global warming.
And the latest — let’s all blame Bill Parcells for making Julius Jones run “like a robot.” Whatever that means.
Jones unloaded on his former head coach on a TV show on the BET network called Ballers. I must have been watching that Bob Barker retirement special.
Jones told BET, “No disrespect to coach Parcells, but you can’t really tell a running back where to run, or he’s going to be out there looking like a robot. That’s what I was doing last year.”
No disrespect to Parcells? Maybe I’m missin’ my dissin’.
It’s all about the disrespect. For most modern, underachieving athletes, it’s all about passing the blame and teeing up the head coach, whenever possible, as the scapegoat.
We media love this. When there’s a change at head coach, we trawl, trawl, trawl the locker room for dissenters, hoping to find the slightest answer that smacks of previous dissatisfaction with Life Under Bill.
I actually agree with Julius on this one. I posted a long time ago, before any of this stuff was out, that I wondered if Parcells had overcoached Jones too much. I’ve had that feeling for a long time that he just didn’t seem as explosive as his rookie year. I think Jones is just being honest about how he feels, but in today’s media envrionment, it was probably best he kept that opinion to himself. I think it’s all a reflection of his frustration last year of having to listen all season long to everyone calling for Marion Barber to replace him, and perhaps feeling that Parcells was holding him back in some ways from being able to shut his critics up. Anyway, I wouldn’t exactly call Jones underachieving. Anytime you get a 1000 yds out of a 2nd rd pick, that’s not too bad. Now he’s really put the pressure on himself to produce, though, so we’ll see what happens.