RedskinRat
11-05-2006, 07:35 AM
Gibbs, Parcells: Rivals Who Can Relate - washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110400652.html)
They will stand on opposite sidelines today at FedEx Field, staring across a football field at one another for the 23rd time as NFL head coaches. For more than two decades, they have been unyielding rivals with contrasting styles, Joe Gibbs with his good-guy values and Bill Parcells with his gruff obstinacy.
But they always have been more alike than they might care to admit. Parcells always has had a soft spot for those players who gave him all they had on Sundays, no matter how they acted the rest of the week. Gibbs always has had an inner drive and toughness that belied his Saint Joe image and made everyone dread being around him the day after a loss.
Now they are more similar than ever. Both are grandfathers. Parcells will one day be a Hall of Famer, as Gibbs already is. And both, in their latest coaching incarnations after coming out of retirement, have found themselves struggling more than succeeding, Parcells while trying to make the Dallas Cowboys the third franchise he's taken to a Super Bowl and Gibbs while attempting to recapture his glory days with the Washington Redskins.
They will stand on opposite sidelines today at FedEx Field, staring across a football field at one another for the 23rd time as NFL head coaches. For more than two decades, they have been unyielding rivals with contrasting styles, Joe Gibbs with his good-guy values and Bill Parcells with his gruff obstinacy.
But they always have been more alike than they might care to admit. Parcells always has had a soft spot for those players who gave him all they had on Sundays, no matter how they acted the rest of the week. Gibbs always has had an inner drive and toughness that belied his Saint Joe image and made everyone dread being around him the day after a loss.
Now they are more similar than ever. Both are grandfathers. Parcells will one day be a Hall of Famer, as Gibbs already is. And both, in their latest coaching incarnations after coming out of retirement, have found themselves struggling more than succeeding, Parcells while trying to make the Dallas Cowboys the third franchise he's taken to a Super Bowl and Gibbs while attempting to recapture his glory days with the Washington Redskins.