Bill Parcells will always be remembered as a great coach. But in recent years, it appears that the man with the domineering personality, piercing glare and gruff voice has become more stubborn as he has gotten older. And in a league that is constantly evolving, a set-in-your-ways attitude does not usually engender success on the football field, no matter how much experience you have. 

Moments after the Dallas Cowboys' playoff hopes took a big hit with a crushing 35-7 loss to Washington, Parcells charged into the locker room and declined to shake the hand of Redskins coach Joe Gibbs. He was obviously disgusted with the performance of his team -- a team he assembled.

 Past his prime?

In the last few years, Parcells has surrounded himself with a core of players who have been coached by him in the past. Drew Bledsoe, Terry Glenn, Keyshawn Johnson and Aaron Glenn play key roles on the Cowboys. Vinny Testaverde did last year. They are all known as Parcells' guys. They are very good at what they do. But they are not great. And they are getting old. Parcells has always subscribed to the idea that he can get the most out of guys who buy into his philosophy. However, he seems to have become too enamored with his hard-core image and is somewhat delusional about his chances to recapture the magic from long ago when he brought the Bledsoes and the Glenns to the brink of a Super Bowl championship. It's not going to happen again with those guys.

But everywhere Parcells has gone, he has tried to hold on to something tangible from his previous stop. He brought Giants tailback Dave Meggett with him to New England. Keith Byars and Ray Lucas were among the players Parcells lured away from New England.  But with each passing year, Parcells' last championship with the 1990 New York Giants becomes more distant, more remote. The victory over the Bills is a memory from another time. In the 14 years since that night in Tampa Bay, his understudy, Bill Belichick, has won more Super Bowls than Parcells has. And Belichick with done it with his own group of players. Parcells, on the other hand, has seen the results of his labors become less satisfactory. He reached the Super Bowl with New England, advanced to the conference title game with the Jets and is now having difficult time getting to the playoffs with the Cowboys.  

Parcells must be frustrated to see this. This wasn't the way he was supposed to go out -- struggling to a lead a proud franchise back to respectability. But if Parcells is ever to steer his team to a Super Bowl, he might just have to learn to adapt, be more flexible and not be so beholden to his guys. The coach across the field Sunday has been able to do that and now is in the driver's seat to make the playoffs -- something the Great Parcells cannot say.