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12:55 AM CST on Monday, November 14, 2005

By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News

It is a saying of Tom Landry's that Bill Parcells always likes to use when he talks about players.

"By the third year, you better start to see something."

Parcells is in his third year with the Cowboys. He has a 21-19 regular-season record. The Cowboys are 5-3 at the midway point this season, perhaps poised for a second playoff run under Parcells.

When Parcells and owner and general manager Jerry Jones met in a plane at the Teterboro (N.J.) Airport before the 2002 season ended, they talked about winning Super Bowls, not just bringing the Cowboys back to respectability. The Cowboys are relevant again, but are they contenders?

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The final eight games, starting tonight in Philadelphia, will determine that and could determine whether he comes back for the final year of his four-year, $17 million deal.

Parcells has never finished a coaching contract, leaving the New York Giants after they won Super Bowl XXV because of health issues, skipping out on New England after losing Super Bowl XXXI with his famous "groceries" quote, and moving upstairs to the general manager's chair after the '99 season with the New York Jets.

The Cowboys have not had talks with Parcells' agent, Jimmy Sexton, about an extension, and it is a subject Jones does not want to discuss. Teams and coaches generally do not want to enter the final year of a contract without an extension. Most coaches want the financial and locker room security, because without it they have a harder time policing players.

"Bill is in a position to do what he wants to do," Jones said. "But it's something we just haven't broached or even talked about."

How long Parcells, 64, will coach has been an issue since he came to Dallas. Last year's 6-10 finish wore on Parcells so much that good friend Pat Summerall said the coach contemplated retirement. The perception when he arrived was that he would last three years.

With another win (No. 171), he will break a tie with Paul Brown for ninth place all time . The only active coach with more wins is San Diego's Marty Schottenheimer.

Parcells is the only coach to take four teams to the playoffs. He has taken two teams to a Super Bowl and would be the first to take a third if the Cowboys were to get on a roll in an open NFC race. Parcells returned to the sideline for these moments, but he knows it won't be easy with the NFL's hardest second-half schedule.

"If you want to put UT-Arlington on the schedule for a week or two, I'd take that," Parcells said.

On the first day of training camp in Oxnard, Calif., Parcells talked about getting in better shape so he'd have the energy for a full season. He'd run three miles on a treadmill as his doo-wop music blared from the exercise room.

For the most part, he's continued the routine during the season.

"I haven't seen any diminished energy," Jones said. "I see the results of his work in the off-season to control his weight and get in condition. I have seen some down times when we haven't prevailed in close games, but it had nothing to do with a lack of energy."

Jason Ferguson was in New York when Parcells left the Jets. He knew something was up when an emotional Parcells addressed the team after a win over Seattle to finish 8-8. Parcells has called that his best coaching job because the Jets were 2-6 at the midway point.

When Ferguson met with Parcells before signing in March as a free agent, he asked Parcells how long he would be the coach.

"You're always going to get the same answer," Ferguson said. "If we do well, maybe he will and maybe he won't. He's on both lines. He definitely doesn't want to finish up being right there and leave, and he doesn't want to have a bad year and say, 'I can't get it done. I'm through.' It's all on his scale. Whatever his scale feels like, that's how he's going to go."

Drew Bledsoe went eight years without playing for Parcells. He said he hasn't seen a change in Parcells' ability to get a team ready, but he has noticed a different approach.

"He's generally a little happier, more content, than I remember in New England," Bledsoe said. "This time around, I think he's doing it because he wants to, not because he feels like he's supposed to do it or needs the attention or wants to establish his legacy. I think he's coaching the Dallas Cowboys because that's what he wants to be doing, and when he doesn't want to do it anymore, he won't."

But Parcells seems happiest when he is miserable.

Fifteen minutes after returning to his Las Colinas home from a 34-13 win against Arizona, he had a yellow legal pad in his hand going over the injury situations and possible player scenarios. As he jotted down notes, he saw Denver, the Cowboys' Thanksgiving Day opponent, whip up on Philadelphia, bringing more consternation.

"It really is hard to have fun as a head coach," Parcells said.

Winning does not bring Parcells as much joy as losing brings him pain. So why does he bother?

"My ex-wife used to ask me that question all the time," Parcells said. " 'Where is it?' She used to say, 'The times that you're happy, percentage-wise, are so minimal to the times that you are frustrated, so where is it?' I don't know."

Two years ago, Parcells was nearly brought to tears after the Cowboys beat Carolina for their eighth victory of the season.

"You can't call them losers anymore," he said then. After the Cardinals game two weeks ago, he went through the locker room, patting backs and shaking hands. That scene will be etched into his memory when he enjoys retirement at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

"Seeing those faces sometimes, those happy kids ... that's what I really remember of all the things in football," Parcells said. "It's not even the games. It's the locker room after the games when they won a big game or a championship and those smiles. I'm not trying to be nostalgic here, but that's how you remember the person. You don't remember them other than that happy time when you have a relationship with them."

E-mail tarcher@dallasnews.com

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