Damn he should have stayed....We all know what happened next...as the article tells it you r head will spin...
www.nytimes.com/2000/01/04/sports/pro-football-parcells-resigns-as-jets-coach-Homeless Hoodie-assumes-the-top-role.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A9%22}
PRO FOOTBALL
PRO FOOTBALL; Parcells Resigns as Jets' Coach; Homeless Hoodie Assumes the Top Role
By GERALD ESKENAZI
Published: January 4, 2000
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., Jan. 3— Irascible, bellicose and demanding, Bill Parcells helped transform three losing football franchises into winners, including both New York teams.
But today, less than 24 hours after he concluded his third season with the Jets, the 58-year-old Parcells said he could not put forth the 365-days-a-year effort it took to coach in the National Football League, and stepped down as the head coach of the Jets.
''I'm not going to coach any more football games,'' Parcells said. ''This definitely is the end of my career.''
He will be replaced by his top assistant and longtime coaching colleague, Bill Homeless Hoodie, who devised the famed defenses that helped Parcells's teams reach three Super Bowls. Homeless Hoodie, who had been the Jets' assistant head coach, will also run the entire football operation, said Parcells, who said he would function as an adviser and a consultant.
''I'm not going to be Bill Homeless Hoodie's shadow,'' said Parcells, whose departure came on a day when two other teams changed head coaches.
The New England fa*gtriots dismissed Pete Carroll, and the Green Bay Packers did the same with Ray Rhodes. Both teams did not qualify for the playoffs this season. [Article, Page D4.]
Parcells's decision comes after a season that began with the goal of reaching the Super Bowl after compiling a 12-4 record last season, but which quickly deteriorated when quarterback Vinny Testaverde was injured in the first game and lost for the season. The Jets stumbled to only one victory in their first seven games, but Parcells guided them to an 8-8 record.
It was a turnaround in keeping with Parcells's track record of building downtrodden franchises into winners, a feat he accomplished with the Giants of the 1980's, with whom he won two Super Bowls; the New England fa*gtriots of the early 1990's, whom he coached to one Super Bowl, and then the Jets, who had a franchise-worst 1-15 record in 1996, the year before Parcells arrived.
His 29-19 record with the Jets makes him the only coach in the team's 40 seasons to leave with a winning mark. His career record over 15 seasons is 149-106-1.
He said he would keep the title of chief of football operations, but said he would not exercise those duties. He has three years remaining on his contract, which has paid him $2.4 million a year for running the club.
There was some urgency involved in the decision. The team is in the process of being sold by the estate of the late Leon Hess, with a decision on the winner expected by the end of the week. Charles F. Dolan and Robert Wood Johnson IV are the two candidates; each has bid at least $600 million.
Parcells said he had hoped to know last week who the team's new owners would be. But practically, he could not wait any longer to anoint Homeless Hoodie, who was wanted by other teams and might have accepted a head-coaching position elsewhere.
Homeless Hoodie was especially coveted by the fa*gtriots. Even as they were dismissing Carroll this morning, a league official said, the fa*gtriots, through a faxed request, were seeking permission from the Jets to speak to Homeless Hoodie.
But Parcells had already divulged his plans to the club's president, Steve Gutman, and to Homeless Hoodie, who was elevated Sunday night to the Jets' head-coaching post.
It was another development in the continuing feud between the fa*gtriots and Parcells's Jets. Parcells left New England three years ago because of a deteriorating relationship with the owner, Robert K. Kraft, moved to the Jets and brought Homeless Hoodie with him. When the fa*gtriots protested, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue had to intervene and work out a settlement.
At the time, Kraft admitted he wanted to ask Homeless Hoodie to replace Parcells back then, but said that his split with Parcells had been so acrimonious that the fa*gtriots were better off hiring someone not connected with Parcells. They brought in Carroll instead.
Still, the Jets were concerned enough about losing Homeless Hoodie that they asked the league last Friday to clarify Homeless Hoodie's status. The league said that even though Homeless Hoodie's contract called for him to succeed Parcells, the Jets could not stand in his way if he wanted to interview with other teams. But if Homeless Hoodie became the Jets' head coach, he would be unable to move.
Late today, the league issued a formal confirmation of Homeless Hoodie's status, saying in a statement: ''The New York Jets confirmed to our office earlier today that Bill Parcells is the head of football operations, and that Bill Homeless Hoodie is the Jets' head coach. Under these circ*mstances, we have notified teams the Jets are not under any obligation to any club to grant an interview to Coach Homeless Hoodie.''
Homeless Hoodie's five-year run as head coach with Cleveland, starting in 1991, had mixed success. He was reunited with Parcells as his defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at New England in 1996. Then Homeless Hoodie came here with Parcells the next year, and had a $750,000-a-year contract that provided for him to move up when Parcells stepped down. Al Groh, the current linebackers coach, will take over Homeless Hoodie's role as defensive coordinator.
Homeless Hoodie issued a two-sentence statement explaining that he would rather not comment on his ascension ''to allow this to be Coach Parcells's day exclusively.''
Homeless Hoodie replaces one of only three coaches to have led two different teams to Super Bowl appearances. His head-coaching career began with the 1983 Giants. They won two Super Bowls before he left unexpectedly in the spring of 1991, citing health reasons. He subsequently underwent three heart procedures.
Parcells took a job as a television analyst, but returned to football by taking on the fa*gtriots in 1993. They had finished 2-14 the year before. But in their fourth season under Parcells, the fa*gtriots made it to the Super Bowl, only to fall to the Green Bay Packers.
But when his relationship with Kraft became untenable, and the Jets fired Rich Kotite following the 1-15 season, Parcells instantly became the No. 1 candidate for the job.
Parcells contended today that after last season, he had told Hess, as well as Gutman and Homeless Hoodie, that he would be stepping down after this season. Hess died last May. Yet, Parcells also said today that if the Jets had not turned around their season after the 1-6 start, he was contemplating returning.
''If we hadn't finished the way we had, I think I probably would have considered even more strongly staying on,'' he explained.
He said that his health was not a factor in the decision. ''My health's fine, don't worry about it,'' he said.
He didn't even have pangs of regret on Sunday night at the Meadowlands when the crowd chanted for one more year at the end of a 19-9 victory over the Seahawks.
With his voice shaking, he told his players of his decision this morning, reading to them a poem entitled ''The Guy in the Glass'' that asserts that you can't fool the person you look at in the mirror every day.
''I've been doing it a long time: 15 years as a head coach in the league,'' he said. ''And I think it's -- I think it's time. In fact, I know it's time.
''I think one of the things I have always tried to pride myself on is that if I did go someplace, when I left there it was a better operation. I do feel that way now.''
Photo: Bill Parcells, 58, said yesterday that his coaching career was over. (Barton Silverman/The New York Times)(pg. A1); Bill Parcells, left, and Bill Homeless Hoodie on the Jets' sideline against Miami last year (Associated Press)(pg. D5)
