Parcells revealed why - in his 17th year as a head coach in the NFL - he has won 151 regular-season games and is almost a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute now, there's no concrete passageway there," Parcells said when the topic of enshrinement was brought up. "I don't think about it. It's out of my control."

Parcells might motivate players with fear. His advice for Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was, "Don't try to be a players' coach. That doesn't work."

But there are more pages than fear in Parcells' coaching playbook. Though he's part old-school coach, Parcells, 63, has some new-age sensibilities. His approach to players is not a one-size-fits-all psychology. His attention to detail knows no detail too small.

And he's human. Parcells talked openly about how losing affects an NFL coach.

PARCELLS DICTIONARY

Now in his 17th year as an NFL head coach, Dallas' Bill Parcells has developed his own coaching style and own definitions. Parcells guy, n., "Anybody's guy, any coach's guy. I would say reliable, dependable, professional guys that maximize their ability and are not problematic in any way." Problematic, adj., "The guy who's not dependable and doesn't give you a lot of respect." High-maintenance, adj., "Somebody who once in awhile annoys you." See Johnson, Keyshawn. Turning it around, vt., "Being in the playoffs two or three years in a row, contending for a championship." Rebuilding, vt., "When I started to build a good team with the Giants (1983), if we had four guys make the team as rookies, 10 percent of 45, I was ecstatic. 'Look at this. What a draft we had. Four guys.' Now you're looking at the majority of the time over 30 percent. You're probably going to change 15, 17, 18 guys a year, and some years more."

Before defeating Detroit on Sunday, the Cowboys had lost three games in a row.

Asked if coaching were still fun, Parcells said: "That's not really a fair question. Of course it's tedious, and it's very difficult to lose two or three in a row like we did, and particularly the way we lost a couple of them. The psychology of these results is very important. And it's difficult to deal with, and it takes all of my experience as a coach to try to keep my team hopeful and believing and mentally alert."

The Cowboys, who were 10-6 in 2003, Parcells' first season in Dallas, are 3-4. Don't count them out, though.

"We're in this time of the year now that the picture is not clear for anyone," he said. "My experience tells me that the picture is not really going to formulate and take shape until after Thanksgiving. And that's something that I've always, based on my experience, tried to relate to my players. A lot can happen in a short time."

Dallas started 2-1. The Cowboys had been penalized 41 times in their first five games. They've been penalized 11 times in the past two games combined.

"First, you know, I chart the officials," he said. "So I know every official in the league and the crew and what they call. And I've gone to making tapes of the crews and their games, and I show the players about a 10-, 12-play tape, 'OK, this is how this crew is interpreting these things.' "

Parcells, winner of two Super Bowls with the Giants and an AFC championship with the Patriots, started coaching in 1964 at Hastings (Neb.) College on the defensive line.

Asked for his impressions of Lewis and the job he has done with the Bengals, Parcells said this: "I don't know him well, but I like his approach. We've had just a couple of conversations. ... He has thought about his job seriously. He seems like a good football guy to me. And something I respect is that he did pay his dues. He was up there in Idaho coaching (at Idaho State). He earned his way into it. I recognized the improvement in the Bengals last year. Anyone would."

Parcells is known for his preparation. He finds ways to accentuate his players' strengths and exploit the opposition's weaknesses.

Quarterback Vinny Testaverde played for Parcells for two years with the Jets and went to Dallas before the season for a reunion.

"I think you can take him one of two ways," Testaverde said. "You can say, 'Hey, I know at the end of the day, no matter how tough he is on me, he's going to make sure that he gives us the best chance to be successful.' There's guys that don't like (his method) and don't like him. But they still play for him because they respect him."

Bengals center Jerry Fontenot interviewed with Parcells as an unrestricted free agent before the 2003 season. Fontenot re-signed with the Saints for family reasons.

"He's very thorough. He has a very good knowledge of the game and the business," Fontenot said. "I have a lot of respect for him."

Parcells, in turn, respects players who play hard for him and are well prepared.

"Listen, I like him," Parcells said of wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, who played three years for Parcells with the Jets. "He can play on my team. ... Every once in awhile he has his moments, but we do understand each other."

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