IRVING – Is he or isn't he?
Bill Parcells was in his Valley Ranch office early Sunday morning, only a few hours after the Cowboys' team charter returned from Seattle after their stunning and stomach-twisting 21-20 loss to the Seahawks on Saturday.
By 11:45 a.m., he was gone after meeting with his coaches and before some players and owner and general manager Jerry Jones arrived.
The Cowboys' off-season began Sunday, and Parcells' future is at the top of the list, as it has been since he came to Dallas in 2003, although it's not the only question.
The futures of receivers Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn, due off-season roster bonuses totaling $8 million, the mental state of quarterback Tony Romo after the dropped snap, the makeup of the coaching staff and the team's draft and free-agent needs are also on the docket, but almost all are tied to Parcells.
Parcells, who turns 66 in August, has one year left on his contract, and Jones said he wants Parcells back for a fifth season. The majority of players stopped outside the team's complex Sunday said they think Parcells will return.
Although some see Saturday's disheartening finish as the final push to retirement for Parcells, others believe he would not want to leave the game in such a way.
"I hope it pushes and drives him to want to come back being so close and coming up so short," linebacker Akin Ayodele said. "Really maybe this gives him the fire and hunger of still wanting to be a coach."
Owens was noncommittal concerning Parcells' return, saying it was not his decision to make.
"I don't think there was anything there to be called a relationship," Owens said. "He was my coach and I was a player. I respected him as such. I wouldn't say there were any bad times at all. I'm sure there were frustrated moments on both of our parts. We both want to win. I wanted to send that guy out on a high note. A number of times I told guys if we win the Super Bowl I want to see the guy go out the right way. I feel bad that didn't happen."
Contractually, Parcells has to make a decision by Feb. 1, according to sources, but he needed only five days last off-season to make up his mind. If Parcells returns, this stop would be the second longest of his career, having coached the Giants for eight seasons from 1983-90.
"I live with unresolved things; I really do," Jones said. "The ambiguity of not having things resolved is my life."
Despite the Cowboys' late season slide, Parcells offered hints that he would return by talking in the future tense about the draft and things on which the team needed to improve.
When asked Saturday if he thought Romo was the quarterback of the future, he said, "I think in my mind that is the direction we'll be going, yeah," but he would not say if he was leaning one way or if he would meet with Jones this week.
"I'm going to take a look at things, take a look at what we need to do and see where we go," Parcells said Saturday.
If this is indeed the end, then Parcells has left the Cowboys in a much better position than when he arrived, although the on-field performance was not what he or Jones expected.
Parcells' four-year record is 34-30, and the Cowboys are 0-2 in the postseason. When Parcells was introduced as coach on Jan. 3, 2003, the idea was that he would surely take the Cowboys back to Super Bowl glory of the 1990s.
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TOM FOX / DMN Bill Parcells leaves the field after the Cowboys' 21-20 loss to Seattle. |
Parcells brought instant credibility to a team that had finished 5-11 the previous three seasons under Dave Campo. In one of his first meetings with his team, he told the players to increase their expectations, and the team responded with a surprising 10-6 finish that earned it a playoff spot.
Unfortunately, that has been the high-water mark.
Jones said in training camp the Cowboys were gearing up for a run, and entering December they were considered one of the NFC's favorites. But three losses – all at home – in their final four games forced the Cowboys to limp into the playoffs.
"To have it end the way it did spoke of how our season's been all year," Ayodele said. "You had our high moments, and then you had the lowest of the lows."
Friends of Parcells have expressed differing opinions on the coach's future. Pat Summerall recently said on local radio stations he did not expect Parcells to return, but he added that his thoughts do not come from conversations he had with Parcells.
Ron Wolf, the former Green Bay president who has visited Cowboys training camp the last four seasons, said he expects Parcells back.
"He's never talked to me about not coming back," Wolf said. "I'd be shocked if he's thinking that way."
Staff writers Chuck Carlton, Tim MacMahon and Calvin Watkins contributed to this report.
E-mail tarcher@dallasnews.com
