Parcells Could Leave the Dolphins BeClause of Contract

In case you haven't heard, ESPN broke the story yesterday about Bill Parcells possibly leaving the Miami Dolphins organization after just one year into his four-year contract.

Parcells, Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins, apparently has a one-time out clause that would allow him to leave with full value of his contract if Wayne Huizenga sells the team.

Huizenga has already sold a good piece of the team to New York Developer Stephen Ross and according to the Sporting News, he wants to sell Ross the rest of the team before Barak Obama takes office to insure the capital gains tax would remain at 15 percent.

Once the sale is completed, Parcells would have 30 days to notify the new owner that he wants to exercise the out clause and would be eligible to collect nine million dollars.

This whole thing makes a lot of sense, but the timing of the story couldn't have come at a worse time for Dolphins fans who just celebrated a 24-17 win over the Jets that put their team into the playoffs for the first time since 2001. 

It seems just good business sense that Parcells would want an out clause that would insure him the chance to leave if the team was sold and he didn't feel that the new owner was someone he could work with.

It makes good sense that Huizenga, in an effort to get Parcells to originally take the position, would insure him that he intends to be around and agreed to the clause to make his case.

To the Miami fans, this could have overtones of Huizenga, the business man, refusing to run his sports franchises like Huizenga, the sportsman.  It was after he went out and bought himself a World Series Championship in 1997 that he immediately sold the players off and the fans never forgave him for that.

If Parcells decides to use his option and leave, the Dolphins, the team that he restructured so well, could easily fall as the Marlins did in 1998 because Bill Parcells is the only man who could have taken a 1-15 team in 2007 to the playoffs this year.  He's proved it everywhere he's been.

However the situation breaks down, Parcells is in great shape.  It has all ready been rumored that the Browns, Jets, Raiders and the Lions are interested in his services.  He could walk away with nine million dollars in his pocket plus a huge contract any of the said teams would offer him.

If the Dolphins want to keep him around, and they would be crazy not too, they might have to come up with a new contract that would entice Parcells to stay.  Such a contract would have to make his current $12 million dollar/four-year deal look pale in comparison.

There is another option for Parcells: He might keep his contract in tact.  He lives in Jupiter, Florida, a short drive north of Miami and he also knows that what happened with the Dolphins this year is a Cinderella story.  Cinderella stories don't come along too often.

Parcells pulled all the right moves starting with Tony Sparano as coach.  Picking up Chad Pennington as quarterback was huge and it just goes on from there.  Everything Parcells did worked out.

This will never happen again and Parcells knows it.  Don't worry Miami fans, he's not going anywhere—anywhere except to Saratoga this summer.