The Coaches: Bill Parcells vs. Mike Holmgren

They are as different as the coasts where they grew up.

Mike Holmgren is the offensive-oriented coach from California who likes his plays run crisply, his practices unpadded. Bill Parcells is a defensive-minded man from New Jersey, who likes his linemen heavy and doesn't mind scores that are low.

Holmgren owns dogs, Parcells a cat. Holmgren comes across as genial at his news conferences while Parcells gets his grump on, his responses notable not for what he says so much as how he says it.

The differences are easy to count. It's the traits they share,however, that are more telling.

"For some reason I feel a sort of kinship with him," Parcells said. "And we've kind of talked about that from time to time.

"I think an awful lot of him."

They are two pinches of the league's old salt. A pair of men not only set in their ways, but successful in them, and while their formulas are very different, they use the same unflinching hand to implement them.

"We view the game the same way," Holmgren said. "We're kind of football purists."

Parcells begins with the defense, stocking it with large, athletic linebackers tough enough to chew glass and spit nails. Holmgren starts with his quarterback and works up from there. Two different paths that have carried them just as far. They are two of the five men in NFL history to coach two different franchises to a Super Bowl. They coached against each other in Super Bowl XXXI, Holmgren's Packers beating Parcells' Patriots, and three of the five games between them as head coaches were decided by four points or fewer.

They are the forefathers of the two largest coaching trees currently growing in the NFL, but Parcells and Holmgren are two men in the autumns of their respective careers playing on a winter evening in the playoffs. Parcells admitted this week he looks forward to postseason opportunities like today all the more because he doesn't know how many more he'll have.

"Actually, Mike and I talked about this," Parcells said. "I'm not speaking for him, but in the conversation, I kind of got the sense that he feels the same way."

That conversation occurred at the scouting combine, the annual audition of the league's incoming talent and the place where the roots of their friendship fanned out.

Scouting out similarities

They got to know each other in Raiderville, though neither ever worked for that franchise. But that's what the league's scouts called a certain section of the stands at the league's annual scouting combine because Al Davis sat there, always in the first row or two. Ron Wolf, who once worked for the Raiders, sat behind him. Wolf was a long-time friend of Parcells and the man who hired Holmgren to coach the Packers in 1992, which is how they ended up sitting in the same section.

"There was a lot of dialogue back and forth during the combines," Parcells said. "You kind of get to know a guy over the years when you've been doing that six or seven years."

Holmgren and Parcells saw the game with an eye toward history. It's what they were looking for that really differentiated them.

"I believe in a particular system on offense," Holmgren said. "And I believe he does the same thing with his defensive team."

Holmgren sees the game through the prism of the position he played — quarterback. He has always said that's the non-negotiable cornerstone in building a franchise.

Parcells has taken that route, too, drafting Drew Bledsoe No. 1 overall in 1993, his first year with New England. But Parcells also has talked about the quarterback like a bus driver — his biggest responsibility is to keep the whole thing from veering off the road.

Holmgren's quarterback must function as a choreographer while Parcells' can be more like a blacksmith, hammering out a victory with more force than finesse.

That position is just the start of the differences.

"I work on the offensive side of the ball primarily," Holmgren said. "I know the type of player I want at each position. I have a profile on that guy."

It's the other way around for the guy who will be on the other sideline today.

"I've heard him say this before, 'My defense is just about where I want it,' " Holmgren said.

The divide in their approaches is reflected right down to the practice regimen.

Holmgren tends to practice in shells, focusing on the tempo his team plays at more than anything else. Parcells reduced the number of full-pads practices this season, but expressed his worry as recently as Wednesday that his team lost some of that physical edge he likes to grind into them.

Personality plus

The coaching trees Holmgren and Parcells planted have branched throughout today's NFL.

Philadelphia's Andy Reid, Tampa Bay's Jon Gruden and Buffalo's Dick Jauron worked as assistants under Holmgren. New England's Bill Belichick, New Orleans' Sean Payton, the Giants' Tom Coughlin and Cleveland's Romeo Crennel worked under Parcells.

Parcells and Holmgren are coaching landmarks whose public personas are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Holmgren is the guy who, goodness gracious, would sound hokey even if he was on "Leave it to Beaver." Parcells can come across like a man still irritated that candy bars no longer cost a nickel or like a grandparent who might not be sure what's wrong with today's youth, but he's absolutely certain it's nothing a good whuppin' wouldn't fix. Maybe that's the toughness bred by coaching in New York. Twice.

But those are the covers of these two books, and the contents are quite different.

"It's kind of flip-flopped," said wide receiver Jerheme Urban, who played under Holmgren with the Seahawks and is now with the Cowboys.

Holmgren is prone to Old Testament eruptions on the practice field. When he coached in Green Bay, he was so angered by his team's performance that he informed everyone they had to be off the field before him or he was firing everyone.

Parcells doesn't let assistant coaches speak to the media, choosing to be the lone voice, and last season in Seattle he delivered a backhand smack to the chest of an assistant who was complaining to an official. But while his sharp tongue and acidic sarcasm make for great highlight clips, they don't provide a portrait for what he's like on the field.

"He's going to point out your mistakes," Urban said. "But he's very good at coming up and saying, 'Good job.'

"Mike was the same way."

Cowboys guard Marco Rivera also played for both coaches. He's asked about their differences.

"You got an hour?" he said, laughing.

That was a joke because Rivera didn't offer a single thing that distinguished them, instead offering the overriding trait that united them.

"They're a lot the same," Rivera said. "They just want perfection in their team."

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com