Maybe Bill Parcells always seems a bit grumpy so no one will ask him for money. Because if his former players do that, he gives it to them.
In all, he has given a lot of money to his former players.
Appearing on WFAN on Friday, former New York area sportswriter Gary Myers explained that Parcells gave millions to former players, without expecting the money to be returned.
“Bill loaned $4 million to twenty players who played for him, who come to him in this financial crisis,” Myers said through Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post. “Bill knows if they come to him, it’s a last resort.”
Myers said he had asked Parcells why he would do that, as Parcells also did not expect to get his money back. Parcells told Myers, “These guys have sacrificed so much for me with their bodies and their dedication.”
It’s one of the stories in Myers’ forthcoming book, Once A Giant: A Story of Victory, Tragedy, and Life After Football. Focusing largely on the 1986 Giants, the Parcells team led to the franchise’s first Super Bowl win.
“People will find out how Bill Parcells made this transition from a man who had a love-hate relationship with his players to the patriarch of that ’86 team, now that Wellington Mara has been gone for a while and Bill had his 82nd birthday recently” , Myers told Glasspiegel.
Now that the cat is out of the bag about the Big Tuna’s generosity, he should probably keep his phone turned off. And not just because people contact him for a quote or two. The quickest way to become the target of money requests is to become known as someone who has a habit of giving money away.
That said, Parcells is apparently willing to do what he can to help those who played before him, whether it was with the Giants, the Patriots, the Jets or the Cowboys.
“He’s stashed away the money he needs for the rest of his life, he’s given money to his children, and what’s left over is to help those close to him who need it,” he said. Myers.
Maybe other coaches already do the same for their former players, but we just don’t know about it. Or maybe other coaches will read this and be inspired to help their former players who have been through hard times – especially if those hard times stem from the overall physical toll those players have taken as they heeded the coach’s call to to run straight into the jumble of bodies that has left their own bodies broken.
