PFW: Gibbs vs. Parcells
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 1:14 pm
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By Tom Danyluk
July 21, 2004
They were once rival warlords, commanders of two great forces from the East.
Joe Gibbs — head coach, Washington Redskins (1981-92). 140-65 career record. Brainy scion of Don Coryell’s thrusting offensive attack. Champion of the counter trey, heavy jumbo and the Explode Package. Won three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks. Formally recognized in Canton, Ohio.
Bill Parcells — head coach, New York Giants (1983-90). 159 league victories. Master motivator. Roots cemented in ball control and iron-fisted, punishing defense. A collector of linebackers. Two-time NFL champion.
Their battleground was the rugged NFC East, a division that from 1982 through ’93 produced seven Super Bowl winners. Survival there depended on big weapons and rumbling armor and leaders who could keep the reins through a long season of attrition.
Gibbs and Parcells met 17 times during those years, and it was heavy-duty football at its best. Between them they won eight NFC East titles. The days of Joe Theismann and Phil Simms. Riggo and the Hogs. Lawrence Taylor and his thunderous sacks, once described as “messages from Thor.” The howl of the Meadowlands and RFK.
Rarely were the contests aesthetic masterpieces, brushstrokes on the canvas suitable for framing. Rather, imagine the work of a blacksmith with his heavy hammer and anvil and a thick leather apron, smoke billowing from the forge.
“Out and out war, those games,” says former Giants LB Gary Reasons. “Very unique football, compared to today. The Redskins and that big offensive line against our defensive front seven, probably the biggest in pro football at the time. Then Gibbs would send out a second or third tight end and hammer away some more. An era gone by.”
“Parcells and Gibbs? Like two chess masters,” says Joe Jacoby, the hulking 6-foot-7 tackle who played 12 years in Washington. “Always trying to guess each other’s next move. Attack and counter-attack.”
Old, dusty memories. Stuff for the scrapbook and “remember when.”
But now in 2004, fate has jumped out, wearing a throwback, and the rivalry has been resurrected. They’ll meet again this season — the first time in 14 years — with Parcells leading the Dallas Cowboys and Gibbs now back in Washington, lured to the Redskins by offer-you-can’t-refuse kind of money. Who knows what their contests will look like this time around?
But hey, it’s only July. It’s still the offseason. A good time to reach for that old scrapbook. Here are our top five games during the first go-around featuring Gibbs and Parcells.
No. 5 — Sept. 11, 1989: N.Y. Giants 27, Washington 24
Ken Horoho was a sportswriter for The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat back in the ’70s. He covered college basketball, and I don’t know how many times his lead was: “In a game decided at the foul line …” Had Horoho been reporting from RFK on this Sunday, well, I can see it now … “In a game decided by a field goal …” Yep, that was the angle, the only Gibbs-Parcells contest ever settled on the game’s final play. Raul Allegre booted one from 52 yards out to win it for the Giants.
No. 4 — Dec. 17, 1983: Washington 31, N.Y. Giants 22
On paper, it had all the makings of a mercy killing. The Giants were 3-11-1, a wounded team in disarray going up against Gibbs’ defending world champs. The bookmakers called for a rout and set the line at 15. Here’s a sampling of the offense Parcells would send into battle that afternoon: At quarterback was Jeff Rutledge, a third-stringer with a 59.3 rating. The wide receivers were Earnest Gray, Floyd Eddings (14 catches in ’83) and Byron Williams (a free agent signed at midseason). In the backfield were Butch Woolfolk and Joe Morris. Woolfolk would be neutralized early in the game with a concussion and twisted ankle; Morris logged only 35 carries all season. At tight end, Malcolm Scott and Zeke Mowatt — two puzzled, overmatched rookies.
The Redskins, meanwhile, were a gathering force, winners of eight straight and on a path to destroy the NFL record for points in a season (541). A victory at RFK would give them home field advantage for the playoffs.
But the New Yorkers came looking for a fight. They attacked with a steady three-receiver set and gave Redskins defenders spaghetti legs and threw all kind of defensive hell at QB Joe Theismann (sacked six times, four interceptions). With nine minutes left, the Giants led 22-17. They couldn’t hold it, but a statement was made — Parcells’ team wouldn’t fold. It was a sign of character, of a bellowing aggression. The following season New York would be a playoff team.
No. 3 — Nov. 29, 1987: Washington 23, N.Y. Giants 19
The Giants came into 1987 with a Super Bowl title to defend. But by late November, they were 3-7 and sucking wind, and the Redskins wanted nothing more than to throw a big roundhouse and punch them out of the playoffs.
“I kept thinking about all those books (Giants players) wrote after last season,” said OT Mark May, “about how they beat us three times and knocked around our quarterback. It made me mad.”
One last hurrah for the champions. New York had gathered itself and built a 19-3 lead late in the third quarter, and then QB Jay Schroeder pulled a Unitas and set off three furious charges to the endzone.
First drive — four plays, 86 yards, 34-yard TD pass to Gary Clark. Score 19-9.
Next drive — six plays, 48 yards, six-yard flip to Keith Griffin. 19-16.
Final drive — four plays, 45 yards, defensive back slips and Ricky Sanders scores from 28 yards. 23-19. New York is home for playoffs.
Perry Williams was the Giants’ corner who let the winning score go by. The Giants’ secondary coach, Len Fontes, was asked about it, and he had an interesting quote. “I always tell my younger players this,” he said. “ 'If there are 70 plays in the game and you do well on 67 of them, in this league it means they still got three touchdowns on you.’ ”
No. 2 — Nov. 18, 1985: Washington 23, N.Y. Giants 21
The game that ended Theismann’s career, the infamous shattered leg on “Monday Night Football.” Most people forget it came on a flea-flicker, a dipsy-doodle number that logic says should never be run against a jackhammer defense like New York’s. LB Lawrence Taylor delivered the initial hit on Theismann, but Reasons piled on and added the weight that did the real damage.
“It was awful,” says Reasons. “I’d never been around an injury like that before, and I never want to see it again.”
Schroeder came off the bench and rallied the Redskins to a win, probably another lost fact from the evening. The Washington Post gave the phonetic spelling of his name in its game story (SHRAY-der). He was still an anonymous figure in Washington at the time.
A strange aside: Paul Najjar, a sports radio host in Louisville, was a student at Dickinson College at the time. The Redskins held their summer training camp at Dickinson for years.
“I went into the school cafeteria the morning after the game, and there was a weird buzz among the workers,” he says. “I asked one of the ladies working the counter what was going on. She said they were all happy that Theismann had messed up his leg, that he had been so rude to them over the years and they hated him. I just looked at her. I don’t remember how I felt when she said that.”
No. 1 — Jan. 11, 1987: N.Y. Giants 17, Washington 0
It was the 1986 NFC championship game, even today known as the crown jewel of the Meadowlands. The Giants built a 17-0 lead on three short, punchy drives and then brought out the boa constrictor, putting the squeeze on the clock and the Washington offense. Parcells called it the toughest wind his team had ever played in, with gusts up to 30 miles an hour that whistled confetti and made the ball do scroogies, but one that helped squash any type of Redskins comeback attempt through the air.
“Anything I threw over 15 yards turned into a knuckleball,” said Schroeder.
So he threw a whole bunch of short ones, 50 of them, to be exact, and the Giants’ defense, ranked second in the league, either smothered Washington’s receivers or watched the ball skip off the turf. When the Redskins tried to run, they were swallowed alive — only 40 yards on 16 carries.
Tough winds or not, it was a cyclone known as the Giants’ defense that did the real damage on this day. A champion’s day. A day for Big Blue. Next stop — the Super Bowl.
On Sept. 27, 2004, Parcells and Gibbs will meet again. It’s been a long time. We’re looking forward to it.
ey run crossing routes at the same time.
