Parcells says retirement fits
By BRIAN ETTKIN, Staff writer
Saratoga Springs his happy place
SPRINGS -- Bill Parcells looks as if he's retired from coaching, tanned and smiling, sitting at a table in the bar at Sargo's, the fine-dining restaurant at Saratoga National Golf Club, sheltered from the siren song that urged him on for the better part of three decades.
Parcells, who turns 66 on Aug. 22, sounds as if he's retired, though he has sounded this way before. When he announced Retirement II, as Jets coach, Parcells said: "I've coached my last football game. You can write that on your little chalkboard." At the time, not even Parcells knew of the chalkboard eraser concealed behind his back.
"I knew when I stopped coaching this time that that was it," said Parcells, who admits, "I felt that way before. I really did. When I left the Jets, I really thought that was it. Quite frankly I know it's it now. My age, I don't want to say it's prohibitive, but it's a young man's game. I recognize that. I don't want to stay too long. I don't want to be propped up out there."
Parcells feels as if he's retired.
When he coached, Parcells used to relish the "off-season," going to the Senior Bowl and NFL scouting combine, evaluating free agents, perpetually plotting and planning.
"Generally speaking you were eager about that," Parcells said. "That wasn't quite the same these last couple of years. If you're a responsible person and a coach, someone who kind of prides yourself on you show up to work, that's what you do, you could force yourself -- I basically forced myself to do the things that had to be done.
"It was more by necessity than by desire. I knew I had to do some things, so I did them."
Parcells, who will work a couple days a week during the NFL season as an ESPN analyst, said he doesn't envision accepting a GM job.
"I don't think so," he said. "That's just as bad (as coaching). All the GM does is deal with problems: salary cap, injuries, player replacement and holdouts. That's all life is."
He wasn't driven from coaching by Terrell Owens. "Not really," he said. "It's hard to explain. He's really not a bad kid. But you know some people just have to have certain things. I think he's one of those; he has to have certain things." (Read: attention.)
"He's a pleasant enough kid," Parcells said. "He's not mean-spirited; he's not vulgar. He's really OK in that respect. ... He didn't have anything to do with me (retiring) at the end of the day."
Parcells wasn't unhappy before, but because of the all-consuming nature of coaching and his perfectionism, Parcells experienced long periods of frustration and exasperation broken up by fleeting bursts of joy.
He's happier now.
Saratoga Springs, where he built his 7,500-square-foot house, across the lake from and above Saratoga National's 15th hole, is his happy place. Some mornings he watches thoroughbred trainers with whom he's friendly, such as Shug McGaughey, Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas, work at the Oklahoma barns. Some days he golfs (he's an 8 handicap) or attends the races (he's "not much" of a gambler). Some days he doesn't know what he's going to do. He likes that feeling. For now.
"I can't tell you how my life's going to be structured," Parcells said. "All I'm doing is kind of playing it by ear right now. What do the kids say? 'I'm going with the flow.' "
When he lived and coached in Dallas, he'd see his three daughters and three grandchildren only once a year. They visit more now, all staying with him in Saratoga last week. Parcells took his 17-year-old grandson golfing and his 13-year-old granddaughter to ride with Lukas.
Friends such as New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank visited him this summer. Members of the Parcells coaching tree who wouldn't have called to pick his brain when he was competing against them now do, friends such as Romeo Crennel, Chris Palmer and Sean Payton. Three NFL coaches invited Parcells to spend a week at their training camps, but he declined.
He performs mundane tasks he never had time for when he coached, like hand-writing letters (Parcells' personal secretaries would type his letters; he doesn't know how to type), making photocopies at Kinko's and mailing overnight packages.
He's even shopped for lower insurance premiums.
First cavemen. Now Tuna.
He says he's done. Finished. Gone fishing forever.
He speaks like a retired man.
"There's not too many people luckier than me," said Parcells, who won two Super Bowls with the Giants and became the first coach to lead four different teams to the playoffs. "I feel very fortunate; I know that. I leave the game with nothing but really good feelings."
This retirement seems like the real thing.
And it probably is.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=613551&category=ETTKIN&BCCode=&newsdate=8/13/2007
