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When the Tuna Went Down to Texas: How Bill Parcells Led the Cowboys Back to the Promised Land
Mike Shropshire Manufacturer: William Morrow ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0060572116 Release Date: 2004-08-31 |
Book Description
Bill Parcells was living in self-imposed exile from the National Football League sidelines. The Tuna had earned living-legend status after coaching the Giants, Patriots, and Jets from the skid-row district of the NFL and transforming those teams into champions. The final weeks of the 2002 season found Parcells working as an analyst at the ESPN studios. His heart aching, Parcells was like a televangelist with no cripples to heal. The Tuna urgently yearned for another lost cause.In Dallas, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones -- described by author Mike Shropshire as "a man involved in a heroic struggle to overcome what had been diagnosed as a terminal face-lift" -- was suffering through sleepless nights. Although his once-proud pro football powerhouse traveled beneath a banner that read "America's Team," it had suffered three straight 5#150;11 seasons. This team was so sick, it had bedsores.
After a clandestine meeting aboard Jones's private jet, parked at a New Jersey airport, Parcells agreed to abandon his East Coast roots and travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way, so a shotgun wedding was performed. The pundits of the national media joined hands and shouted, "Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! They're too set in their ways! It'll never work!"
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells the ultimate motivator and so-called Jock Whisperer applying his craft, Dallas rolled to a 10#150;6 regular-season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs. When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men "too brittle for tango lessons, but not yet blind enough for assisted living" amazed the sports world and serves as absolute proof that while the truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier.
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"E-Book Extra: Parcells in a Nutshell
Bill Parcells was living in self-imposed exile from the National Football League sidelines. The Tuna had earned living-legend status after coaching the Giants, Patriots, and Jets from the skid-row district of the NFL and transforming those teams into champions. The final weeks of the 2002 season found Parcells working as an analyst at the ESPN studios. His heart aching, Parcells was like a televangelist with no cripples to heal. The Tuna urgently yearned for another lost cause.
In Dallas, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones -- described by author Mike Shropshire as ""a man involved in a heroic struggle to overcome what had been diagnosed as a terminal face-lift"" -- was suffering through sleepless nights. Although his once-proud pro football powerhouse traveled beneath a banner that read ""America's Team,"" it had suffered three straight 5-11 seasons. This team was so sick, it had bedsores.
After a clandestine meeting aboard Jones's private jet, parked at a New Jersey airport, Parcells agreed to abandon his East Coast roots and travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way, so a shotgun wedding was performed. The pundits of the national media joined hands and shouted, ""Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! They're too set in their ways! It'll never work!""
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells the ultimate motivator and so-called Jock Whisperer applying his craft, Dallas rolled to a 10-6 regular-season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs. When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men ""too brittle for tango lessons, but not yet blind enough for assisted living"" amazed the sports world and serves as absolute proof that while the truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier.
"Customer Reviews:
A fumble.......2005-06-25
Very Entertaining.......2005-01-15
Interesting Subject, Horrible Writing.......2004-11-19
Humorous look at the building and rebuilding of a franchise.......2004-09-17
Funny and Revealing--"The Jock Whisperer" and the Cowboys.......2004-09-10
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Parcells: A Biography
Bill Gutman Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0786707313 |
Book Description
Both intimidating and disarming, at once a regular-Joe Jersey kind of guy and the hard-nosed, hard-driving NFL winner of a coach with a tongue like a whip and the temperament of a tyrant, Bill Parcells has already made football history. And he's done it three times. Taking the reins of the desperately failing New York Giants in 1983, Parcells not only turned the team around but took it to the Super Bowl -- twice (in 1986 and 1990), and twice the Giants won. Then, with the downtrodden New England Patriots he again managed to work some of the same gridiron magic by propelling them to the Super Bowl in his fourth season at the helm. Returning to New York in 1997, this time to rally the Jets, he faced perhaps his greatest coaching challenge yet, but in two seasons the team with a lamentable 1-15 record had won a division title at 12-4 and missed the Super Bowl by only a game. While this no-holds-barred biography of Parcells examines and assesses the career of this consummate coach, it also explores the force that defines the public personality and drives the private man. Call that force ambition, a dream, bulldog spirit, or perfectionism, it took hold of Bill Parcells early and never let him go, as he strives still to achieve his vision of the perfect game.Customer Reviews:
I enjoyed the book.......2007-02-26
Gutman's doesn't land "Tuna"-- a major disappointment!.......2001-05-15
Gutman Rip Off.......2001-05-14
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The Final Season: My Last Year as Head Coach in the NFL
Bill Parcells , and Will McDonough Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0688174914 Release Date: 2000-09-05 |
Amazon.com
Football genius Bill Parcells isn't one to mince words. "I'm 56 years old," he says at the beginning of The Final Season, "and I don't intend to be coaching when I'm 60." Unless something changes radically, he's already honored that intention with three years to spare.The coach who led the Giants to two Super Bowl victories and turned the New England Patriots into AFC champions came back to New York in 1997 to tackle the rebuilding of the woeful 1-15 Jets. Within a year they were legitimate contenders, playing for the AFC Championship. When the 1999-2000 season kicked off, hopes were soaring at the Meadowlands. But there was new ownership to contend with. Keyshawn Johnson demanded a renegotiation. Injuries sidelined Wayne Chrebet, and quarterback Vinnie Testaverde went down in the season opener, lost for the year. Suddenly, the Jets were 1-6. Then came the turnaround. Sparked by the inspired--and unexpected--play of third-string QB Ray Lucas, the Jets wound up winning seven of their last nine, and then, equally unexpected, Parcells retired as head coach. In perhaps the season's most bizarre fiasco, his designated heir, Bill Belichick, resigned immediately.
The Final Season is Parcells's week-by-week account of the campaign. If you love football, the chronicle is good inside football. Parcells provides detailed analysis of every win and loss and uncensored assessments of his players, himself--"Our general manager (that would be me) didn't have a great year," he admits--and the flap-turned-farce that attended his exit. But it's more than that, too. Final Season is a story of ups and downs, of strong emotions, of coping with frustration and disappointment, and of unifying a team when the chips are down. Parcells is savvy, complex, never shy, and never boring. With The Final Season, he cannily marches readers down the field just as he did his teams. --Jeff Silverman
Book Description
As unflinching, candid, and tough as the man himself, The Final Season is Bill Parcell's swan song as head coach in the NFL. During 1999, a grueling, difficult season, Parcell's found his resolve and coaching ability tested at every turn.
It wasn't supposed to be like that, though.
The two-time champion coach who had guided two different teams to the Super Bowl was expected by fans and pundits to drive the New York jets all the way. After all, they had reached the AFC Championship the year before. But fate would not allow it. In the preseason, respected and longtime owner Leon Hess died, casting a season-long pall of uncertainty over the organization. During training camp, two players were arrested after a bar fight. In the final game of the preseason, Wayne Chrebet one of their top receivers, was injured. Then a huge blow-in the season opener Vinny Testaverde, the Pro Bowl quarterback, ruptured his Achilles tendon and was out for the year. Things grew progressively worse-at one point Parcells had lost nine starters. He also endured personal suffering when his dear friend and agent Robert Fraley died in the same plane crash that killed Payne Stewart.
Parcells struggled to keep his team on track, trying to maintain their confidence in the face of enormous odds. "When you're losing, you coach better. You're on top of every detail. You scrutinize yourself, your coaches, your players, and the system you're using." He became his own fiercest critic: "No matter how long you have coached, no matter how many games you have won, no matter how many playoff games, conference championships, Super Bowls you've won, it's all irrelevant. You are not winning now and that's what counts. You think you suck. You are a loser as a coach."
Things hit rock bottom when the team went 1-6. But
Parcells the coaches, and the players would not lie down. "If you don't play to win, then you shouldn't play at all." Parcells called up every strategic and motivational ploy he could dream up, and through sheer force of will and a great amount of pride, the jets won seven of their last nine games.
In The Final Season, readers will not only get an unsparing look inside one of football's greatest minds and a champion's philosophy but also Parcells frank take on good owners; his battles with "owner-operators"; the greatest "warriors" he's coached for and against; the players who are "dogs"; the game's most challenging coaches; and his seasons with the Giants and the Patriots. Parcells also provides the reasons for retiring from coaching as well as his perspective on Bill Belichick's controversial resignation and eventual departure for New England.
A rare, behind-the-scenes football memoir, The Final Season brims with insights and revelations, a testament to a great competitor and future Hall of Famer.
Customer Reviews:
Wanna be an NFL Coach?.......2003-02-23
Parcells takes readers through his entire final season with the New York Jets in 1999, when he ultimately concluded that this would be his final coaching responsibility. Jerry Jones has since hastened Parcells out of retirement at a hefty salary to jumpstart the formerly mighty Dallas Cowboys as he had earlier altered the fortunes of the New York Giants, New England Patriots and Jets respectively.
You cannot help coming away with an admiration for Parcells due to his rock-ribbed honesty. Here is a man who will criticize his players if he believes they are giving less than 100% or playing less than intelligent football. He blames himself for losing a game in the closing stages by "getting cute" and calling for a pass which was intercepted and ultimately cost his team the game when it would have been wiser retrospectively to keep the ball on the ground. When assistant coach Dan Henning tells him that his insistence on keeping Rick Mirer in the lineup as starting quarterback in the face of less than awesome performances stemmed from a stubbornness to face the facts since Parcells made the trade in his general manager's capacity, the coach, rather than blowing up over having his ego assaulted in the manner that a smaller man would, ends up agreeing with Henning. Accepting genuinely felt constructive criticism in a positive manner is the hallmark of a mature and honest man.
In addition to telling us plenty about strategy, how games were won and lost, and providing his opinions on players he reveres, such as his own sterling running back Curtis Martin and respected opposing quarterback Dan Marino of the Dolphins, Parcells tells about the deeply rooted pressures in NFL coaching. He reveals about his bypass operation and expresses dismay over his inability to sleep and nervous eating anxieties when the season is in full swing, leading to weight gain. He also weighs in on his view of the poor performance of certain NFL officials, especially in key situations, a problem which has magnified since this book appeared. Parcells expresses his concern as well over the rise of fan hooliganism, fearing that perhaps America may follow the example ultimately of the European soccer rioters.
If you love pro football, this is a can't miss read. The coach is an intelligent man of candor with plenty of interesting things to say.
Final season?.......2002-02-05
As for the story it was easy ready and it was pretty cheesy. Nothing really BIG or personal described in the book. For a man as criticial as he is, I expected more DEEP thoughts in this book, but it never happen.
The Football Czar spekas.......2001-12-07
A half-hearted effort.......2001-07-13
That said, this book was disappointing. It started out well, the first portion of this book is riveting, and gives you real insight into his thoughts, and how he puts a team together. Where it goes downhill is after the Jets very first game of the '99 season where they lose multiple starters for the season, including the starting QB. Going into the season the Jets were considered by many people a favorite for the SuperBowl. If it were to follow the team through a season like that, it would've been a great read throughout. Instead, after those injuries, Parcells basically mails it in for the rest of the book, in my opinion. What could've been a great book instead becomes a mediocre effort.
Egomaniac, phony, and nasty person.......2001-02-13
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When the Tuna Went Down to Texas: The Story of Bill Parcells and the Dallas Cowboys
Mike Shropshire Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: ASIN: 0060572124 Release Date: 2005-11-01 |
Book Description
Bill Parcells had earned living-legend status after transforming the Giants, Patriots, and Jets into champions. But in the final weeks of the 2002 season, he found himself living in a self-imposed exile from the National Football League. His heart aching, the Tuna yearned for another lost cause. Enter Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Deep in the heart of Texas, Jones's once-proud pro football powerhouse had suffered through three straight disastrous seasons. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way.
After a clandestine meeting, Parcells agreed to travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. Football pundits shouted, "Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! It'll never work!"
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells applying his witchcraft, Dallas rolled to a 10-6 regular season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs. When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men would amaze the sports world and serves as absolute proof that although truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier.
Customer Reviews:
A BETTER TITLE IS WHEN I FELL ASLEEP READING THIS.......2007-01-14
Well-written and insightful.......2006-07-23
Arghhhhhhhhhh!.......2006-06-01
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Dorothy Denton's Diary
Cedric Parcell Manufacturer: Highgate Publications (Beverley) Ltd ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0948929626 |
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The life and work of Malcolm Parcell: A catalogue raisonneĢ
Paul Burgess Edwards Manufacturer: Washington County Historical Society ProductGroup: Book Binding: Unknown Binding ASIN: B0006S4IV8 |
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Parcells
New York Daily News Manufacturer: Sports Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1582611467 Release Date: 2000-09-15 |
Book Description
Whatever a person may think about Bill Parcells, there is no argument about one thing -- the man got results. He took three different NFL franchises from the scrap heap to championship games. After winning a pair of Super Bowls as the boss of the Giants, Parcells further demonstrated his skill as a coach by taking the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl and getting the New York Jets to first place and the AFC championship game just two years after the Jets finished the 1996 season with a 1-15 record.Parcells chronicles Bill Parcells' career, from his New Jersey roots to his vagabond life as an assistant coach for hire and on to his first stint in the NFL -- which he walked away from. Parcells' story is told from the archives of the New York Daily News.
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Parcells: Autobiography of the Biggest Giant of Them All
Bill Parcells , and Mike Lupica Manufacturer: Bonus Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 093389340X |
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