A study in contrasts

Parcells, Shanahan take different roads to AFC title game

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Posted: Saturday January 16, 1999 08:12 AM

Home wrecker: The Broncos are 32-3 at Mile High Stadium under Shanahan AP

DENVER (AP) -- The disparities come straight at you like Terrell Davis carrying the ball: East vs. West; offense vs. defense; loud and intimidating vs. cerebral and relatively unmenacing.

Bill Parcells vs. Mike Shanahan.

OK, so they'll be on the sidelines, not on the field, when the New York Jets play the Denver Broncos in Sunday's AFC Championship game. But they'll get as much camera time as league MVP Davis and the rest of the players at Mile High Stadium.

"Well, Bill and I can't play," said Shanahan, who guided Denver to its first Super Bowl triumph (after four losses under previous regimes) last January. "Our players play. It's one of those games where you are playing for a championship and both teams are excited to get out there and show each other what they can do."

Both teams can do plenty. They appear to be at their peaks. The Jets, for example, have not been nearly this good since midway through the 1986 season, and they haven't been a true title contender since 1982. These Broncos probably are better than any of their previous Super Bowl visitors, even last season's champs.

And the coaching has so much to do with it.

"I think you always get a little juiced up when you're going against a coach who has had a lot of success, and obviously a coach who has a couple of Super Bowl rings," Shanahan said.

Parcells, who says he barely knows Shanahan, but admires his work, sees that work in how the Broncos conduct themselves.

"The Broncos have won so many games in the last few years, I don't think anything that happens on the field is going to damage their mentality," said Parcells, who with a fourth straight victory in a conference championship game -- two came with the Giants and one with the Patriots -- would be the first man to coach three franchises to the Super Bowl. "They get behind, they think they are going to come back ... I don't think we're speaking about fragile mentalities at this time of the season."

Both Shanahan and Parcells are known for their leadership. Their backgrounds, however, are quite dissimilar.

Parcells could become the first coach to take three different teams to the Super Bowl AP

Shanahan was a quarterback, Parcells a linebacker. Shanahan grew up in the Midwest and learned the pro game in Denver and San Francisco. Parcells was born and raised in New Jersey and did his apprenticeships on the Atlantic coast.

While Parcells led the Giants to two Super Bowl crowns in his first NFL head coaching stint, Shanahan was 8-12 for the Oakland Raiders and was fired four games into 1989.

Shanahan is well-versed in all kinds of offensive schemes and was the coordinator for the 1994 champion San Francisco 49ers, who had one of the most dynamic attacks the league has seen. He has mixed elements of the West Coast offense with his own tenets and, thanks greatly to such talent as Davis, John Elway, Shannon Sharpe, Ed McCaffrey, Rod Smith and a superb offensive line, put together a nearly unstoppable offense in Denver.

Parcells is a defensive guru, but one who is willing to open things up and gamble on offense. Parcells and longtime defensive coordinator Bill Belichick probably are the most innovative defensive coaches around, and they deploy personnel as well as anyone.

As for the images, well, Parcells knows how to turn on the charm, but you never want to cross him.

"This is a coach who wants to make you a better player, and wants you to do your best," said Pro Bowl receiver Keyshawn Johnson. "He'll keep coming at you to make sure you understand him and make sure you're working hard. But that's one of the things that makes him a great coach to play for. You know he'll give you the best chance to win."

Shanahan doesn't appear so gruff, but don't be misled. Nobody is testing him, either.

"He's tough on you," Broncos veteran safety Tyrone Braxton said of the man some players call "Little General."

"You think of a general who's going to be tough on you, but then he loves you as a person and as a player. He loves his soldiers, and he's going to nurture them, make sure they're ready."

Sounds like a successful approach.

 

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