It’s not clear if Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones is smart enough to realize that. He’s a guy who likes big, flashy toys, from the Super Bowl rings he’s commissioned that are heavy enough to anchor a battleship to coaches with glitzy reputations earned somewhere else. It worked with Jimmy Johnson, and Switzer somehow won a Super Bowl, too, although it’s still not clear how much he had to do with it. But the object should be stability, not flash. The one thing the Cowboys have lacked in the Jones era has been a long-term plan. Parcells’ retirement gives the team a chance to get that.

The Tuna, meanwhile, will slide into an analyst’s job, dispensing gruff wisdom from the booth while younger men willing to surrender their lives to the demands of coaching prowl the sidelines. He’s got a home on the Jersey Shore, and he’s involved in horse racing, which should be enough to keep him from taking another coaching job.

He’ll miss it. He told me two decades ago that he was a coach in high school and has never changed. And to him, that meant being a teacher. He’s spent his life teaching men how to reach their potential and how to win.

Parcells tried never to put a player in a situation in which he couldn’t succeed, so his teams reflected the talent he had. With the Giants, that meant a grinding ground game and a ferocious defense. With the Patriots, it meant an aerial thrill show. In all the stops except the Giants, what he never had was a great quarterback, but it’s instructive of his talent that the only time Vinnie Testaverde ever got to a conference championship game was with Parcells and the Jets.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

The revisionists will be sure to write that Parcells wasn’t as good as his reputation, but they’ll be wrong. He was always exactly as advertised — tough, determined and uncompromising. What set him apart was a magnetic personality and ability to toss off quotes that left the media laughing despite themselves.

He demanded respect, but you found yourself giving it to him freely and without reservation because he also earned it. When I think of a football coach, only a few images come to mind. Bill Parcells is one of them.