Bill Parcells

There are football coaches and there is Bill Parcells. One of only three coaches in NFL history to have led two different teams to the Super Bowl, Parcells is one of the legendary figures in pro football. Opinionated, cerebral, obsessive and highly successful, the man they call the "Big Tuna".

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Parcells played football at Wichita State University, graduating in 1964. He was the assistant coach in several college programs before becoming the head Coach of the Air Force Academy in 1978.

In 1980, Parcells joined the coaching staff of the NFL's New England Patriots. He then went to the New York Giants as an assistant the following season and took over as head coach in 1983.Parcells guided the Giants to three consecutive playoff appearances and an NFL championship after the 1986 season with a 39-20 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. He was named the NFL's coach of the year by The Sporting News for that accomplishment. Parcells had a 25-7-0 regular season mark over the next two years and the Giants won their second Super Bowl victory after the 1990 season, beating the Buffalo Bills 20-19.

Due to a medical condition, Parcells announced his retirement from coaching early in 1991 and worked as a television analyst. However, in 1993, Parcells accepted the head coaching position with the New England Patriots. The Patriots improved to 10-6 in 1994, making the playoffs for the first time in eight years. After slipping back to 6-10 in 1995, New England had an 11-5 record in 1996 and made it to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers. He left the Patriots to take over the New York Jets in 1997.The Jets had won a total of just four games in the previous two seasons, but they immediately improved to 9-7. In 1998, they had a 12-4 regular season record and went to the AFC playoff game, where they lost to the Denver Broncos, who went on to win the Super Bowl. After one more season, once again, Parcells announced that he was retiring from coaching.

Less than a year later he took over the Dallas Cowboys, who had gone 5-11 for three straight seasons. Parcells turned them around to 10-6 and a playoff appearance in his first season. That made him the first coach in NFL history to take four different teams to the playoffs.