Bill Parcells
Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the NFL team, the Miami Dolphins, Bill Parcells is one of the most successful NFL coaches of all time. Parcells joined the Dolphins after leaving head coaching jobs for the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and New England Patriots.
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- Football /
- Sports

Bill Parcells, trend-setter, team builder, innovator and "The Man with the Plan" has proven throughout his career that he is synonymous with winning. One of the most successful coaches in NFL history, Parcells led the New York Giants to victories in Super Bowls XXI and XXV, and took the AFC Champion New England Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI. Parcells is one of only two coaches in NFL history to lead two different teams to the Super Bowl. The other is Hall of Fame coach Don Shula.
Parcells' dream to become a NFL head coach began while as a teenager he watched the New York Giants defeat the Chicago Bears in the 1956 NFL championship game. The seed was planted. The young man born in Englewood, New Jersey in 1941 decided he would someday be an NFL coach.
Parcells graduated from River Dell High School in 1958 and, after a brief stint at Colgate, went to Wichita State where he was a star linebacker. After he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round, he decided to turn immediately to coaching instead and took a position with Hastings College in Nebraska. Parcells then returned to Wichita State where he was defensive coach before he became assistant coach at West Point (1966), defensive coordinator at Florida State (1970), defensive assistant at Vanderbilt (1973), and Texas Tech (1975), and then head coach of the Air Force Academy in 1978. After a brief stint as linebacker coach for the New England Patriots, Parcells joined the Giants in 1981 as defensive coordinator.
Under Parcells' direction, the Giants defense improved dramatically. In 1980, the team had allowed 425 points. However, under Parcells' guidance, the defense improved from its No. 25 ranking to No. 3 and allowed only 257 points. They also had the lowest average-per-rush (3.4) allowed and lowest average-per-play (4.2) allowed.
Parcells was named head coach of the New York Giants beginning with the 1983 season. The boyhood dream had become a reality which would, in the next eight years, again become dreamlike. Parcells established one of the highest winning percentages of all NFL Coaches. He was named Coach of the Year in 1986 in all the major polls. In 1989 he was named NFL Coach of the Year by NFL Films and NFC Coach of the Year by the Washington Post. He was also named Coach of the Year for the All-Madden team for the 1990 season.
To date, probably the greatest tribute to Parcells' success is the fact that he took a struggling New York Giants and transformed them into world champions that would claim the Super Bowl title in 1986 and 1991. In only eight years as a head coach, Bill Parcells had accomplished what most coaches only hope to accomplish in a lifetime.
After two successful years as an NFL football analyst for NBC Sports, Parcells returned to coaching on January 21, 1993 as he took over as Head Coach of the New England Patriots. With the ultimate goal of the Super Bowl in mind, Parcells the team builder implemented his plan and took the Patriots, a 2-14 team in 1992, to a 10-6 mark and a playoff berth in 1994, and an 11-5 record in 1996, including the AFC Championship and a berth in Super Bowl XXXI.
In addition to being an exceptional coach, Parcells is also an accomplished author. He has written two books: his autobiography Parcells- The Biggest Giant of Them All (1987), and Finding A Way To Win (1995), a book on the principles of leadership, teamwork and motivation as they relate to any organization, not just a football team.
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