Parcells greets veterans on practice field
By Joel Anderson
Associated Press Writer
May 19, 2003

IRVING, Texas (AP) - The sideline is no place for Bill Parcells
during a practice.

Parcells took the field Monday in his first practice with the Dallas
Cowboys veterans, the first of eight over the next six days. He
ambled around the fields throughout the sweltering afternoon session,
mostly observing with his arms crossed as his assistants put the
players through drills.

Temperatures reached the 90s in the Dallas area.

Wearing a navy blue fisherman's hat and a white T-shirt, Parcells
sometimes barked instructions to some of the players and a few other
times chatted with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Under the trained eye of Parcells, players exhibited pep that wasn't
often present during previous training camps under fired coach Dave
Campo.

Players jogged from drill to drill, quickly popped up off the ground
and constantly kept up encouraging chatter during the two-hour
practice.

It was just the kind of intensity Parcells promised the Cowboys would
have when he was hired nearly five months ago.

Jones hired Parcells to inject a little life into a franchise that
had suffered through three straight 5-11 seasons. The Cowboys won the
last of their five Super Bowls _ three for Jones _ in 1996 and
haven't had a winning record since 1998.

Parcells took the New York Giants, New England Patriots and New York
Jets from losing records to the playoffs in two seasons. He has a 138-
100-1 record in regular-season games, and is 11-6 in the playoffs
with two Super Bowl wins for the Giants and an AFC title with the
Patriots.

Over his 15 seasons as an NFL coach, Parcells has earned a reputation
as a master strategist, keen evaluator of a talent and an extremely
detail-oriented manager. He was known to linger around the Cowboys'
workout facility during the offseason, striking up conversations with
players in an effort to learn all he can about them.

But a couple of hours before camp opened Monday, Parcells repeatedly
emphasized that the team would be in good shape and would work hard.
Other than that, he said, he didn't know much else about his team.

Asked for specifics about nearly every position on the team, Parcells
coyly feigned ignorance about much of the team's personnel.

"Everything is wide open," he said. "I have to go on what I see."

Not so, said player after player.

"He knows everything about us," said safety Darren Woodson, at 34 now
the oldest Cowboy on the roster since Emmitt Smith was released in
the offseason. "He's a player's coach _ he wants to be in the mix."

Parcells did say that the team's quarterback derby is essentially a
two-man race between Chad Hutchinson and Quincy Carter, with both
players expected to take an equal number of snaps during the camp.

"I'm just going to let these two guys fight it out," Parcells
said. "I don't know, we just might play two guys the whole
preseason."

Both Hutchinson and Carter got roughly the same amount of plays
during the first practice. Third-stringer Clint Stoerner got the rest
of the snaps.

Carter, who lost his starting job to the rookie Hutchinson after
seven games last season, said he's optimistic that his new coach will
give him a shot to regain his spot.

"I'm looking forward to an opportunity to compete," Carter said. "I
trust everything coach has been telling us."

Parcells also said it was unlikely that the Cowboys would add a free-
agent quarterback into the mix, saying "I haven't seen anything that
I like so far."

The camp ends Saturday, with two-a-days scheduled for Tuesday and
Thursday. This will be the Cowboys only minicamp of the offseason.