A special Play of the Day it’s an excerpt from my book “Little Things That Win Big Games” it’s a book review of the Autobiography  by Bill Parcells.

Bill Parcells is one the guys that epitomizes Coaching Matters. Parcells performed his “turnaround Magic” with the Giants (Two Super Bowl Championships), The Patriots, The Jets & The Cowboys. This past season the world of Football – on every level screamed out “Coaching Matters” , Curt Cignetti & Mike Vrabel are great examples of why Coaching Matters.

PARCELLS

Bill Parcells is one of the elites in the world of NFL coaches. His accomplishments are extraordinary and include 2 Super Bowl victories. The second with a backup quarterback. What intrigued me about Parcells is that he turned around four NFL franchises with basically the same formula, which I call “The Parcells Way”.

This book is a long autobiography of a complex man who coached in a simple method. It starts with Bill’s success as a High School multi-sport athlete and his early influences. Mickey Corcoran, a Lombardi disciple was Bill’s High School hoops coach. Mick played for Lombardi at St. Cecilia’s and passed on Lombardi’s motivational genius to Bill.

Parcells played college football at Wichita State and after a good career got into college coaching. Though Parcells did not have great success as a college coach; it impressed me that Parcells studied the great college coaches. He studied Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bear Bryant, John McKay, Darrell Royal, Bo Schembechler and especially Bud Wilkinson. He was particularly interested in Wilkinson’s 34 Defense & his no-huddle high tempo offense.
Parcells Philosophy of “Toughness, Toughness and more Toughness” was forming. He also was being sold on Defense & Ball Control Offense. He studied coaches in all sports. His favorite book was Bill Libby’s The Coaches and his best friend and confidant was Bobby Knight.
I don’t want to make this book review a mini bio of Bill Parcells, I just want to point out some things that I believe made him successful. Evaluating Players- Bill’s method came directly from Bucko Kilroy:

Bucko’s Ratings:

1. “A” got it all
2. “B” got it all
3. “C” got it all BUT short
4. “D” got it all BUT Sketchy
5. “E” got talent BUT under-achieves
6. “F” everything BUT speed
7. “G” good player BUT lacks something

Parcells key factors :

TOUGHNESS. Defenders must tackle first.
O. Linemen – long arms & wide butts.
TB – big, bruising, punishing runner.
The 34 Defense – designed to make OLBs Pass Rush Stars. NYG’s Lawrence Taylor changed the way the NFL played football. Parcells used LT the way Picasso used pastels. Parcells always stressed physical play and tackling.

Turning the Giants  around – In Bill’s first year as head coach of the Giants, they finished 3-12-1 in 1983. Bill was on a very HOT seat. George Young, the GM, contacted Howard Schnellenberger about Bill’s job! Bill went over his mistakes, regrouped & went into 1984 as a do or die year. Added some key guys and went to Chuck Knox’s ball control ground attack to control the clock. Controlling the clock is critical to turning a program around. The Giants got to the playoffs and got to the second round. Giants lost in playoffs in 1985 but won the Super Bowl in Parcells’ 4th year.

Little Things that Win Big Games is available at Amazon

https://amzn.to/3UGqdFE