Again, what's "silly" is any attempt to place them on equal footing. In any way. That's what's "just silly".
You admitted yourself that Garrett inherited the quarterback - Romo. The most precious and difficult thing to acquire in sports. And who was it again that was responible for Romo being that quarterback?
Duane Charles Parcells.
If the man did nothing else in his tenure, he got this team's quarterback right. When they went through failure after failure after failure after Aikman retired. Advantage. Big Bill.
Parcells inherited a team that had gone 5-11 for three straight seasons. Bottom of the heap.
He immediately took them to 10-6 and the playoffs.
The team Garrett inherited went 11-5 the year before. He proceeded to take them to three 8-8 seasons.
You want to try to establish equal footing where it doesn't exist.
Couple of things, 1. If you want to thank anyone for Romo, its Sean P and Quincy C is who should be thanked. Sean for convincing Romo to sign with Dallas and Quincy for being stupid. Parcells had little to do with Romo being a Cowboy, but he did keep him and help him so he get credit for that.
2. The team Garrett inherited was 1-7. The record the year before is meaningless. The talent on that team in 2010 was 1-7 when Garrett took over.
I by no means intend to say Parcells was a bad coach, or unsuccessful. I like Bill and wish he would have stuck it out for another year or two because I do think he built a good team and could have competed for a championship had he stayed and because if he had stayed, maybe there would never have been a Wade Phillips hire which set this team back 5 years. My whole argument is that you can't claim bill was a success because he was good at roster management but without playoff success but can call Garrett a complete failure because while he is good at roster management, he hasn't had any playoff success. It's a double standard.
One Coach went 34-30 0-2 in the playoffs in his 4 years and one went 36-28 1-1 in his first 4 years. Both have been better at roster management than the guy they took over for. IMO, both are quality coaches in the NFL. One is all time great,, one the story is still be written.. But if you want to call Garrett a failure, then you have say Parcell was a failure too. I don't believe either are.