Parcells: A Biography

by Bill Gutman

In January 2000, shortly after the New York Jets ended their '99 season, their coach, Bill Parcells, retired. By then he had won 149 games, lost 106, tied one, led three major pro football teams out of serious slumps, and taken two of them to the Super Bowl. He had made football history; he'd become the NFL's miracle man. Both intimidating and disarming, with a tongue like a whip and the temperament of a tyrant, Bill Parcells joined the failing New York Giants in 1983. By 1990 he'd twice taken the team to the Super Bowl. Three years later he took in tow the downtrodden New England Patriots, whom he propelled to the Super Bowl in his fourth season. He returned to New York in 1997, this time to rally the Jets. In two seasons the team with a lamentable 1–15 record had won a division title and missed the Super Bowl by only a game. In 1999, beleaguered by injuries to key players, the Jets nose-dived, losing six of its first seven games, but Parcells still managed to salvage the season with an 8–8 finish. While this biography candidly assesses the career of a consummate coach, it also examines the driving force that took hold of Parcells early and never let him go. Call it ambition, a dream, bulldog spirit, or perfectionism, it made him one of the winningest coaches in NFL history.

Genres: Sports, Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2000

About the author

Bill Gutman is the author of more than two hundred books for both children and adults in a writing career that has spanned some five decades. His first book was an adult-level biography of former basketball star Pistol Pete Maravich, and since then he has written children's and young adult biographies and profiles of many prominent sports stars such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neal, Ken Griffey, Jr., Bo Jackson, Brett Favre and many others.

Some of his adult books include a biography of former football coach Bill Parcells, Parcells: A Biograpy; When the Cheering Stops, interviews with some 25 former baseball players from the 1940s through the 1960s on life after baseball; Won For All: The Inside Story of the New England Patriots' Improbable Run to the Super Bowl, written with former linebacker and then Patriots assistant coach Pepper Johnson; Twice Around the Bases, written with former big league manager Kevin Kennedy; The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant! which was the story of the 1951 pennant race between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, written with home run hero Bobby Thomson; Miracle Year, Amazing Mets, Super Jets, the story of both New York teams winning championship in 1969; Being Extreme, interviews with 22 of the most daring, high risk athletes in the world of mountain climbing, BASE jumping, ski diving, big wave surfing rock climbing, extreme skiing and snowboarding. Of more recent vintage is What if the Babe Had Kept His Red Sox: And Other Fascinating Alternate Histories from the World of Sports, a book of What Ifs. His most recent sports book is a young adult biography of Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge called All Rise: The Aaron Judge Story.

Bill's current passion is The Mike Fargo Mysteries, a series of novels and novellas about a tough detective working in the New York City of the 1920. The novel, Murder on Murderer's Row is available as both an ebook and in paperback on Amazon, an ebook on other venues. The novellas, Death of a Flapper, Murder on Broadway, Seven Days to Murder and The Grab-A-Cab Murder are currently available as ebooks. A sixth book, Roaring Twenties Cop, Mike Fargo's Own Story is told in Fargo's words and serves to bring the lead character of the series to life, as he talks about his childhood on Staten Island, the reason he became a cop, the New York City of the 1920s and some of his cases. The book serves as an introduction to the series and is available for free on the Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo and Smashwords websites.

And hopefully there is much more to come.

Reviews

[Anthony D’Apolito III · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learning about leaders is something I love to do. Bill Parcells is a great leader who has a lot of insight to offer.

I connected with this book on a deeper level than the average reader for two other reasons: I am from New Jersey and I used to play football.

Because of that, I can understand Bill as an individual, a coach, and most importantly a teacher and leader.

The writing that revolved around recapping football games and such could’ve been better. Otherwise, I enjoyed this read.