Is football genius stamped with an expiration date?
Either coaching savants Bill Parcells and Mike Shanahan are not as smart as they used to be, or winning in the NFL has gotten way tougher.
Nobody can take the Super Bowl trophies away from Shanahan or Parcells. But does the shine ever wear off?
The two league championships won by both of these geniuses have earned them guaranteed lifetime employment and eternal praise from network TV announcers who practically trip over themselves to genuflect and kiss the Super Bowl rings of Parcells and Shanahan.
But the tough thing about genius is how it’s constantly graded on a wicked curve.
Shanahan and Parcells have not scored any points on their Hall of Fame résumés in a long time. For the Hall, there is no free pass.
When the two coaches shake hands before this week’s showdown in Texas between the Broncos and Cowboys, Parcells and Shanahan will find themselves in a spot both men have not visited much lately.
First place.
Neither Shanahan nor Parcells has won so much as a division title or a playoff game since 1998, when they crossed paths in the AFC championship game at a stadium that has been torn down.
At age 64, Parcells could be sitting in a recliner at home on Thanksgiving, rising only to carve the turkey for his grandkids.
Shanahan could be contending for a national championship as the toast of Florida or Notre Dame, and have a lot more time to play golf.
But, as smart as it is, genius does not know the meaning of taking it easy.
When I mentioned burnout and Shanahan in the same sentence late Sunday afternoon, Broncos veteran Al Wilson responded with a single word.
“Never,” Wilson said, after beating the New York Jets 27-0. It was the first shutout by a Shanahan team since 1997.
In a Jets locker room where it was all over except the shouting of angry headlines in the New York tabloids, the dour face of running back Curtis Martin brightened at the mention of Parcells, his boss with two teams during the 1990s.
“The first rule of playing for Parcells? He doesn’t allow players to cheat themselves,” Martin said. “Those who cheat themselves he gets rid of. It’s a pretty simple rule: Don’t cheat yourself. That’s Parcells 101.”
Parcells has changed employers three times since he last won the Super Bowl for the New York Giants 15 seasons ago.
John Elway has sold enough cars to jam a freeway since
Shanahan won his last championship almost seven years ago.
As odd as it may sound, Jake Plummer could do more for Shanahan’s Hall of Fame credibility than Elway, by proving Denver’s coach does not need a quarterback for the ages to make him look smart.
With an impressive 8-2 record and by far the most daunting stretch of their schedule ahead, these Broncos can smash their coach’s recent reputation for folding when the stakes grow higher.
After seven seasons with the Broncos, Wilson knows what Shanahan is thinking without the coach opening his mouth.
“If anything, the guy wants to win more now than when I met him,” Wilson said. “And his fire is contagious. Mike Shanahan is not a loud, obnoxious coach. But he’s very intense. You look in his eyes – at that icy stare – and you can see he is intense.”
One of these years, the Hall of Fame will welcome Parcells with open arms, if for no other reason he won his championships in New York, where the toughest critics turn into shameless homers for any sports hero who puts a shine on the Big Apple.
Shanahan has more work to do before anyone starts chiseling a bust of him.
Why? There’s no gracious way to put it. The Broncos have a tradition of getting dissed by the Hall of Fame.
All coaching genius is not created equal.
The hardest road in football is from Denver to Canton, Ohio.
Watch Mark Kiszla during “Classic Now” on ESPN Classic. He can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
