From Publishers Weekly
"Are you kidding me?" asked a Sports Illustrated story in early 2003, shortly after autocratic Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones hired equally autocratic Bill Parcells ("The Big Tuna") as head coach of his NFL franchise. It was a sentiment repeated throughout the world of professional football, a world in which the fortunes of the Cowboys had declined after three consecutive 5–11 seasons, and a world Shropshire seeks to expose in this uneven examination of the Cowboys' 2003 season. Shropshire (Seasons in Hell; etc.), a writer for Playboy, Sports Illustrated and Slate.com, takes a magnifying glass to the Cowboys' amazingly improbable 10–6 record in Parcells's first season. He plumbs coaching philosophies, quarterback controversies and locker-room gossip, seeking to understand the reason for the team's first trip to the playoffs since 1999. Shropshire pores over each game, and even transcribes the coach's public utterances. Inexplicably, though, he devotes little space to the relationship between owner and coach. Maddeningly digressive (containing meditations, at times lengthy, on subjects such as zombies, the 2012 Olympics, motivational speaking and hurricanes) and listlessly written ("[Flozell] Adams is a player of gigantic physical size"), the book will appeal to only the most devoted fans. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Bill Parcells was living in self-imposed exile from the National Football League sidelines. The Tuna had earned living-legend status after coaching the Giants, Patriots, and Jets from the skid-row district of the NFL and transforming those teams into champions. The final weeks of the 2002 season found Parcells working as an analyst at the ESPN studios. His heart aching, Parcells was like a televangelist with no cripples to heal. The Tuna urgently yearned for another lost cause.
In Dallas, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones -- described by author Mike Shropshire as "a man involved in a heroic struggle to overcome what had been diagnosed as a terminal face-lift" -- was suffering through sleepless nights. Although his once-proud pro football powerhouse traveled beneath a banner that read "America's Team," it had suffered three straight 5–11 seasons. This team was so sick, it had bedsores.
After a clandestine meeting aboard Jones's private jet, parked at a New Jersey airport, Parcells agreed to abandon his East Coast roots and travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way, so a shotgun wedding was performed. The pundits of the national media joined hands and shouted, "Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! They're too set in their ways! It'll never work!"
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells the ultimate motivator and so-called Jock Whisperer applying his craft, Dallas rolled to a 10–6 regular-season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs. When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men "too brittle for tango lessons, but not yet blind enough for assisted living" amazed the sports world and serves as absolute proof that while the truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier.
Download Description
"E-Book Extra: Parcells in a Nutshell
Bill Parcells was living in self-imposed exile from the National Football League sidelines. The Tuna had earned living-legend status after coaching the Giants, Patriots, and Jets from the skid-row district of the NFL and transforming those teams into champions. The final weeks of the 2002 season found Parcells working as an analyst at the ESPN studios. His heart aching, Parcells was like a televangelist with no cripples to heal. The Tuna urgently yearned for another lost cause.
In Dallas, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones -- described by author Mike Shropshire as ""a man involved in a heroic struggle to overcome what had been diagnosed as a terminal face-lift"" -- was suffering through sleepless nights. Although his once-proud pro football powerhouse traveled beneath a banner that read ""America's Team,"" it had suffered three straight 5–11 seasons. This team was so sick, it had bedsores.
After a clandestine meeting aboard Jones's private jet, parked at a New Jersey airport, Parcells agreed to abandon his East Coast roots and travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way, so a shotgun wedding was performed. The pundits of the national media joined hands and shouted, ""Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! They're too set in their ways! It'll never work!""
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells the ultimate motivator and so-called Jock Whisperer applying his craft, Dallas rolled to a 10–6 regular-season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs. When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men ""too brittle for tango lessons, but not yet blind enough for assisted living"" amazed the sports world and serves as absolute proof that while the truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier."
About the Author
Mike Shropshire is the author of five books, including Seasons in Hell, described by radio personality Don Imus as "the single funniest sports book I have ever read." Shropshire's work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, Playboy, and MSN Slate. He lives in Dallas with his wife and teenage son.
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