Parcells by Carlo DeVito: The SportsJabber.net Interview

Big Tuna Revealed: An SJ-Exclusive Interview with Parcells Biographer, Carlo DeVito
By Trey Hill
SJ Contributing Author, Blogger, Jabberhead

A couple weeks ago the wonderful people here at Sports Jabber asked me if I would be interested in conducting another interview for the website and then writing another story from what I learned. I imagine it took me about 2 seconds before I replied that of course I was willing to take on another special project for the people that have been so good to me. So I did my research and tried to think of a handful of questions that I thought would both give all of us an idea of just who Carlo DeVito is and also let us know just a little bit about his upcoming book, "Parcells: A Biography".

What I’ve found though in trying to figure out how exactly I should go about writing this story to help promote the book is that while I could do the story the same way that I did with the movie "Chasing 3000", that would be a great disservice to Carlo DeVito. In answering my questions, he took the time to give long, detailed answers and in doing so, I got the exact information that I was hoping to learn.

DeVito is an accomplished writer, but rather than sticking with just one broad topic (whether it be sports, politics, or science fiction), he writes about the things that really grab his attention. When someone really cares about what they are writing about, it always shows through in the details and as you’ll read below, DeVito definitely took the time to get all the details that were out there. This biography about Parcells is going to be the most in-depth one ever done on the Big Tuna and it’s going to be an excellent read. But rather than take my word for it, read the entire interview yourself word for word. And when you do, you’ll agree that DeVito is an excellent writer with a lot of drive to make sure this is a top notch biography about a legendary football icon.


Trey/SJ: While it seems from what I've found you like to write about sports figures, you also seem to have quite a few books that are far from being classified as that. What motivates you to write those books and which style would you say you're more comfortable with?

Devito: I like writing about different things. Lately, I am writing more about wine and sports than anything else. Being a trade book editor, there are a lot of things which draw my eye, but my favorite things to write are historical sports and biography. I find writing about Wayne Lukas, the Maras, Yogi, Scooter, or Parcells inspiring. They are all human beings - they have their foibles, their failures, their inadequacies - but they also have drive, determination, and dedication. I find in the end that those qualities are in fact not just fun to write about, but also personal intriguing. And I love the slightly more historical aspects. I really love delving into old newspaper archives, or getting on chat boards and asking about the old neighborhood, and getting into who the people are and where they come from. History isn't just statistics, one needs to find the era from which someone comes from to even begin to understand them. So many things go into seeing what makes a person, and I love finding those small things.


Trey/SJ: What made you decide you wanted to write a biography about Bill Parcells and what would you say makes this one unique to the other books about him out there?

Devito: Firstly I am a Giants fan. Always have been. And he had such an incredible aura about him - his whole "Jersey guy" thing. he felt like he would have been in the stands with us, if he wasn't the coach. But seeing how successful he was, in so many places, made him a very intriguing target. Once you start to look further, there's a lot more there, there. One of the things about my book that I think is different from all the others, is that, firstly, it's a more complete and definitive book than any other out there.

Secondly, I have a lot more about his personal life in there. His father, Chubby, was a standout football player at Georgetown (still holds records there for football - held some NCAA records for a while as well), he worked for the FBI and Uniroyal (where he was a top executive). he fathered three boys - al of whom are incredibly accomplished - Bill, Donald (highly noted football player at WestPoint; decorated Vietnam vet; President First Fidelity) and the youngest, Doug Parcells (there's a whole sports complex named for him in north Jersey). These four men all grew up in the same 20-25 mile radius, and really never left (even though they traveled far and wide).

Read the whole interview at:
http://sportsjabber.net/forums/sjforums/showthread.php?p=408778

Davis once talked to Parcells about becoming Raiders coach

Davis once talked to Parcells about becoming Raiders coach
By vtafur@sfchronicle.com (Vittorio Tafur)
San Francisco Chronicle
October 12, 2011

Super-Bowl winning coach Bill Parcells talked about the late Al Davis on ESPN Radio on Tuesday, and here are the highlights:

Whether Parcells ever came close to being the Raiders coach:

“You know, one time he inquired about that. And I said ‘you know Coach, that might be the end of a real nice friendship.’ I said ‘we’d be like Grumpy Old Men, Water Matthau and Jack Lemmon.’ He started laughing, so I said ‘why don’t we pass on that right now.’ And he said ‘okay.’ And we did.”

On the stories of how he and Davis used to sit next to each other in the same spot at each year’s Scouting Combine:

“That’s absolutely correct. Ron Wolf and myself, we would sit right at the start of the 40-yard dash. And we could see visually, we were very close to the players, so you got a good look at their physical make up, the size of their hands, you know, whether they were nervous or not, you got a little idea about their quickness as they burst off the line in the 40-yard sprint. Year after year, that’s exactly right, we would sit there all day long. And coincidentally, we would talk about football players and baseball in New York City and all sorts of things. He was just a great guy and also a very important adviser to me at critical times in my coaching career.”

How Davis’ mantra of personal accountability was something he took with him throughout his Hall of Fame coaching career:

“You know, there was a time early in my career when job security was certainly in question, and I think he was the one who got me really back on track in terms of being able to give me a general manager’s point of view as well as an owner’s point of view. And also he was very adamant about me about just doing your job — ‘Just do the job that they hired you to do, and don’t be distracted by other things around you that you have no control over.’ And you know, it kind of put me back on track — and just in the nick of time by the way — and it was something that I tried to pass forward to all the guys I worked with. Just do your job — players and coaches — and quit worrying about what other people are doing. Just get yours done. And if you’ve got a good team concept, eventually it will come together.”


Read more at:
http://blog.sfgate.com/raiders/2011/10/12/davis-once-talked-to-parcells-about-becoming-raiders-coach/

Parcells Nominated for NFL Hall of Fame

Bill Cowher, Bill Parcells among candidates for Pro Football Hall of Fame
Keyshawn Johnson and Tiki Barber are some of the players eligible for the first time. Voting will take place the day before the Super Bowl in February.

Bill Parcells walks off the field following a preseason game between the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks in 2006. The former NFL coach is a candidate for the 2012 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

Dustin Snipes / U.S. Presswire / August 13, 2006
September 28, 2011, 5:10 p.m.
LA Times

Retired coaches Bill Cowher, Bill Parcells and Marty Schottenheimer are among the modern-era candidates for the 2012 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Cowher is eligible for the first time, as are players Keyshawn Johnson, Tiki Barber, Drew Bledsoe, Stephen Davis, Rod Smith, Will Shields, Troy Vincent and Mike Vanderjagt.

Parcells and Schottenheimer previously were eligible under different requirements.

In 2008, the Hall of Fame made it mandatory for coaches, like players, to be retired five consecutive seasons. Before that, coaches were eligible immediately upon retirement, allowing Parcells to be a nominee in 2001, 2002, and 2003, and Schottenheimer in 2000. This is their first year of eligibility under the new provision.

Altogether, 103 men are eligible; voting will take place in February the day before the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. From the original list of nominees, the selection committee will choose 25 semifinalists in November. That group of semifinalists will be further reduced by a mail ballot to 15 modern-era finalists and announced in early January.

The final list of candidates also will include two senior nominees: former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Jack Butler and former Detroit Lions guard Dick Stanfel.

Between four and seven enshrinees will be announced Feb. 4, and the class will be inducted in August.

Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nfl-report-20110929,0,4887439.story

Bill Parcells Nominated for NJ Hall of Fame

The former NFL coach grew up in Hasbrouck Heights
By Eamon Harbord
October 13, 2011
Hasbrouck Heights Patch.com

The New Jersey Hall of Fame has announced the nominees for its 2012 class: 50 accomplished historical figures, artists, entertainers and innovators, all with ties to the Garden State.

Among this year's nominees is River Dell alumni Bill Parcells, who coached the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, in the Sports category. Parcells graduated in 1959 as a three-sport athlete (football, basketball and baseball) and is honored as a member of the River Dell Athletic Hall of Fame.

The "Big Tuna" was born in Englewood, but grew up in Hasbrouck Heights. His family later moved north to Oradell just before the start of Parcells' sophomore year. As a Golden Hawk, the 6'2" Parcells was a star quarterback, pitcher, and center while wearing black and gold. After graduating from the University of Wichita with a degree in physical education, Parcells' started his 46 year coaching career at Hastings in 1964 and by 1979 had moved on to the NY Giants.

He won two Super Bowl rings with the Giants, defeating the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI and the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. Parcells' led the New England Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI but lost to the Green Bay Packers and then the NY Jets to the AFC Championship Game in 1998. He finished his coaching career with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2006.

Additional nominees are former Vice President Aaron Burr, former President Grover Cleveland and early women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the historical category.

Salsa singer Celia Cruz, "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve and jazz trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie are among the nominees in Arts & Entertainment.

The Enterprise category includes chef Alice Waters, electronic communications inventor David Sarnoff and newspaper publisher Samuel I. Newhouse.

The Sports category also includes Wellington Mara, who owned the Giants, and broadcasting icon Dick Vitale.

Alexander Calder, the artist who invented the mobile, writer Joyce Carol Oates and cartoonist Charles Addams, who inspired The Addams Family, are included in the General category.

Voters have till January to go online to choose their favorites from five categories. The web address is www.NJHallofFame.org.

The nominees are for the hall's fifth class. It's the most nominees ever, in part because residents have suggested "so many remarkable individuals over the past 12 months," said John O'Brien, who chairs the group's voting committee.

The top vote-getter in each category will be inducted into the hall in June. The top runners-up will also be chosen for induction, said Don Jay Smith, spokesman for the hall.

The hall celebrates New Jersey history by honoring its many talented residents and former residents


Read more at:
http://hasbrouckheights.patch.com/articles/bill-parcells-nominated-for-nj-hall-of-fame-1161cc10

PARCELLLS: A BIOGRPAHY

Brash, outspoken, and a master of pushing psychological buttons with his players,
organizational personnel and the press, Bill Parcells is a magnet for attention. He is known for his all-consuming demand for perfection and insistence on a single-minded focus from his coaches and players. In the history of the NFL, no coach has turned around more franchises than Parcells.

In Parcells: A Biography, the exhaustive research of sports biographer Carlo
DeVito sheds new light on a football coaching legend, exposing the two-time Super
Bowl winning coach’s moxie and lifelong dedication to football. DeVito goes
in-depth and follows Parcells beginning with his 15-year collegiate coaching career,
which is where he met many of the men who later filled out his coaching staffs.
Prior to his NFL career, Parcells did stints at Wichita State, Army, Florida State,
Vanderbilt, Texas Tech and the Air Force Academy.

DeVito sheds light on Parcell’s greatest moment and accomplishments, including:

• New insights on some of his most famous relationships with the sport's
biggest names
• His complicated and often volatile interactions with his players
• How Parcells made the transition from player to coach in his younger years
• His Super Bowl triumphs in 1986 and 1990 with the New York Giants
• Manning the helm with the Jets and Patriots and turning both
franchises around
• The frustration of not winning a playoff game in Dallas in four years.
• Coaching stars such as Lawrence Taylor, Tony Romo, Drew Bledsoe
and Vinny Testaverde

DeVito leaves no stone unturned in this enlightening and comprehensive
biography, revealing stories from both on and off the field that have never
before been told. Parcells: A Biography digs deep into Parcells' past and
presents an entertaining and unforgettable look at a two-time Super Bowl
champion coach whose motto is: "You are what your record says you are."

About the author:
Carlo DeVito is a writer and publishing executive. He is the author of
Wellington: The Maras, the Giants, and the City of New York; Yogi: The Life and
Times of an American Original; as well as biographies on Phil Rizzuto and D.
Wayne Lukas. He and his wife, Dominique, and their two sons live on their
farm, the Hudson-Chatham Winery, in Ghent, New York.