Bill Parcells stood defiantly on the podium. His jaw muscles flexed, his eyes brimmed with an anger that seemed on the verge of boiling over. Here he was, just six days away from the Super Bowl, and everyone wanted to know what he's going to do the day after the game.
Will Parcells remain the coach of the New England Patriots? Will he wind up with the New York Jets? Hardly the kind of questions conducive to game preparation.Parcells' future has been the subject of speculation all season, brought on by his agreement with owner Robert Kraft to void the last year of the coach's contract. Then The Boston Globe reported Monday that Parcells will leave New England after the Patriots meet the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.
"There's no new news, in my estimation," the coach said at a Monday evening news conference dominated by questions about the report. "That's it. Let's leave it at that. Why can't you leave it at that? I'm not saying anything."
With the Patriots mired in speculation about their coach's future, Green Bay . . .
Practiced.
Working outdoors for the first time since Oct. 31, the Packers reveled in the un-Green Bay-like 66-degree temperatures. Quarterback Brett Favre, who grew up in nearby Kiln, Miss., even stripped off his shirt prior to practice to run windsprints.
"It was nice being outside," said coach Mike Holmgren, who has no intention of leaving Green Bay after Sunday's game. "You know, it's been a couple months since we've been able to do that."
The Globe story was written by Will McDonough, who knows Parcells well and shares the same agent, Robert Fraley. Kraft pointed the finger at Fraley for igniting a pre-Super Bowl tempest that could make it tougher for the Patriots to keep their minds focused on Sunday's game.
"To me, it's unfortunate that his agent, Mr. Fraley, took this time to try to put something in the paper," Kraft said. "I'm not going to let any foolishness, or other people's agendas, distract us from one of the greatest weeks in football history in New England."
Parcells left the Giants after the 1991 Super Bowl, and New York's other team, the Jets, reportedly is willing to pay him whatever it takes to straighten out their 1-15 mess.
Some of the Patriot players were caught off guard by the report that Parcells is leaving.
"I knew it has been speculated about throughout the course of the season," said Chris Slade, speaking just a few feet away from his coach at the team's downtown hotel. "I didn't know it was a sketched-in-stone type of thing. But until I hear him tell me he's not going to be the coach, then I'm counting on him to be the coach next season."
William Roberts, a member of Parcells' two Super Bowl championship teams in New York, speculated that he might be trying to divert the spotlight from his players.
"You have to wonder," Roberts said. "Sometimes he does things and you wonder why he does them."
Dave Meggett, another ex-Giant who reunited with Parcells in New England, knows equally well the unpredictable nature of his coach. Still, he sounded a bit annoyed about being inundated with questions about an issue that really has nothing to do with the game itself.
"I'm getting questions in the supermarket, the dry cleaners, wherever I go," Meggett said. "I can't control Bill Parcells. Bill Parcells controls Bill Parcells. Whatever he decides to do will be the best thing for him and his family. Me and everyone else will have to live with it."
The Packers must be a bit pleased that their opponent is having to deal with a Super Bowl-sized distraction just a few days before the game. Holmgren, quite naturally, sidestepped questions about Parcells' future, realizing that there's no need to inject himself into the Patriots turmoil.
"This has been kind of a turbulent year in the coaching fraternity," Holmgren said. "The decisions Bill has to make are obviously personal decisions on his part. I don't think he's going to let anything be a distraction to his football team at this stage."