Legendary coach Bill Parcells, before his Hall of Fame induction next week, sat down with Post columnist Steve Serby for some Q&A.
Q: John Madden once said that the Hall of Fame busts talk to each other at night. Who will your bust seek out?
A: That's really an easy question. Certainly I'd be keeping an eye on [Lawrence] Taylor (smile). And Harry Carson, of course. The players that I coached that are in there: Curtis Martin, [Andre] Tippett, those guys. And then Wellington [Mara]. And then the guys that helped me get going in the business — Al Davis, Tom Landry and Chuck Noll. ... And the personnel guys, none of those are in there, but there were three or four of them that helped me too: Gil Brandy, Mike Holovak, Bucko Kilroy, and of course, Ron Wolf. ... My contemporaries: Joe Gibbs, Bill Walsh, Marv Levy — those were the guys that I was competing against all the time that are in there.
AP
Former NFL head coach and general manager Bill Parcells
Q: What do you think your bust would say to Wellington?
A: Thanks for everything. Stuff like that. I'm gonna say something at the end of my talk that involves Wellington, so I can't say it now.
Q: Why did you pick former Giants defensive end George Martin to present you?
A: A lot of people have asked me that. Basically he was a very important player for me at the beginning of my career, at my formative years as a head coach in the NFL. He was my co-captain with Harry, and he was my player representative, and he was a conduit of information to the players and vice versa, in a time when there not rules and regulations that are in place now, to handle certain situations. So we had to kinda figure this out together, and he was very supportive in that regard. And quite frankly, I'm not certain that I would have ever gotten to go forward in the business without his help.
Q: Can you elaborate?
A: I can just say that he supported me — and his teammates — that was the balancing act that he had to do.
Q: A Bill Parcells football player would be described how in the dictionary, 25 words or less?
A: Smart ... tough ... committed ... in condition ... and the same guy every day. And I probably would say ... unselfish would be an important word for me too. And I'll say this at my speech, and I don't mind you saying this: I had the right guys at the right time. ... That was a rough and tumble crew now, people don't realize. ... There were some football players in that group. ... You were not awed by their skill level, some of them. But those attributes you couldn't see, they had 'em - - the [Maurice] Carthons and the [Jim] Burts, and those guys.
0 comments:
Post a Comment