Bill Parcells Owes Bill Belichick
Bill Parcells head coaching record with and without Bill Belichick on his staff.
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One glance at Bill Parcells head coaching record reveals that he was a great NFL coach. His overall regular season record is 172-130-1. Good for a .568 winning percentage. His playoff record is even better at 11-8 (.579), and includes 3 trips to the Super Bowl, and two Super Bowl victories.
Any NFL head coach would love to have that record.
Now look at this coaching record:
Regular season record of 67-76-1 (.465). Playoff record of 1-4 (.200).
Not too many NFL head coaches would be proud of that record. But you know what? That second coaching record is also Bill Parcells. That is Parcells head coaching record without Bill Belichick running his defenses.
When Parcells was named New York Giants head coach back in 1983, he retained Bill Belichick on his staff (Belichick was originally hired by the Giants in 1979). In 1985, Parcells appointed Belichick as his defensive coordinator.
In the 1983 and 1984 seasons the Giants were a combined 12-19-1 and went 1-1 in the playoffs with Belichick on the staff but not officially running the defense.
From 1985 to 1990 the Giants went a combined 65-30 and were 7-2 in the playoffs including 2 Super Bowl wins over the Denver Broncos in 1987 and the Buffalo Bills in 1991 with Belichick as the defensive coordinator.
Belichick then went on to coach the Cleveland Browns and Parcells eventually ended up in New England coaching the Patriots. Without Belichick from 1993-1995 Parcells went 21-27 with one playoff loss in New England. Belichick joined Parcells Patriots staff and ran the defense for the 1996 season and the Pats went 11-5 and 2-1 in the playoffs were they ended up losing the Super Bowl to the Green Bay Packers.
Both Parcells and Belichick then moved on to the New York Jets from 1997-1999 and the Jets went 29-19 over the 3 years with a 1-1 playoff record with Belichick running the defense. Parcells then “retired” and Belichick went on to coach the New England Patriots.
Parcells then un-retired and coached the Dallas Cowboys from 2003-2006 and compiled a 34-30 record with a 0-2 record in the playoffs without Belichick .
So Bill Parcells head coaching record with Bill Belichick running his defenses is a combined 105-54 (.660) in the regular season and 10-4 (.714) in the playoffs including two Super Bowl victories and one Super Bowl loss.
Entering the 2007 season Bill Belichick’s regular season head coaching record in New England is 75-37 (.670) and his playoff record is 12-2 (.857) including 3 Super Bowl victories. (Belichick’s Cleveland Brown record is not nearly as stellar.)
Clearly Bill Parcells owes a great deal of his head coaching success to Bill Belichick. Without Belichick on his staff Parcells head coaching record is under .500 and he never won a playoff game (0-3). Without Parcells around Belichick has won 3 Super Bowls and compiled a stellar record in New England. While some may say that Belichick learned from Parcells, the records indicate that’s not really true or Parcells would have won with or without Belichick on his staff.
In the end you cannot take away anything from Bill Parcells head coaching record in the NFL. He was smart enough to recognize Bill Belichick’s talents at running defenses and he made full use of those talents many different times and for three different teams. Both head coaches will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, but there can be no mistake as to which one is the better coach and which one owes the other.
