The dozens who sat through those sessions over the years, always came away with the same impression — they had learned more about Xs and Os from Parcells than from any NFL coach. And if he could do that with folks who rarely had played football beyond high school, he clearly could impart it to NFL players.

His approach to them — and to others who worked for him — was carrot and stick. One day he’d be their buddy, the next day he’d be all over them. He once got into a shouting match with Phil Simms after Simms had led the Giants to scores on their first four possessions but threw an incomplete pass on the fifth.

“We just like to chat sometimes,” Simms explained afterward.

One team official who worked with Parcells recalled recently that he’d pick a team employee to harass each day just to let him know who was boss.

It was random. One day it would be the equipment man, the next day the video guy, another day the trainer. Then he’d leave them alone — or even praise them — until it was “their day” again a couple of months later.

He also used senior players to impart his message to younger ones.

With the Giants of the mid-’80s, it was linebacker Harry Carson and defensive end George Martin, two veterans who had survived dreadful teams of the late ’70s. As Parcells moved around the league, it was often guys he brought in from his old teams — Pepper Johnson, a former Giants linebacker in New England; Richie Anderson, a former Jet, in Dallas.

No coincidence that both are now coaches: Johnson with Belichick in New England and Anderson with the Jets.

Why did he step down in good health?

Those close to him lately suggest Parcells was convinced that if he couldn’t turn around a team in three or four years, the players would tune him out and the results would be as they were in Dallas this season. A few good wins, some puzzling losses and nothing much better than mediocrity.

But give the communicator a year off — likely in a television studio near you — and who knows?

He’ll be 67 then.

Ready for a new challenge.

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