Act Won’t Play in Peoria or New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS —  It wasn’t exactly Benjamin Netanyahu embracing Yasser Arafat.

Or President Clinton arm in arm with Newt Gingrich.

But in the world of pro football, it was certainly the most anticipated meeting of the week.

And, as it turned out, the most anticlimactic.

There they were, side by side, New England Patriot owner Bob Kraft and his coach, Bill Parcells, facing the national media in a public demonstration of mutual support, appearing ready to march together into Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Only no one was buying it.

Certainly not those in the Boston media who have watched the relationship between Parcells and Kraft deteriorate through the long season even as the fortunes of the team have grown.

Money is not the point of contention. Rather, it’s power. Parcells was stripped of his control over personnel at last spring’s draft by Kraft, with the final say given to Bobby Grier, the team’s director of player personnel. Parcells is believed to be considering an offer from the New York Jets, worth perhaps as much as $10 million over three years, to be coach and general manager.

Parcells and Kraft have said all year that they would not discuss until season’s end whether Parcells, whose contract expires Feb. 1, will sign a new one with Kraft.

But that seems unlikely after Parcells’ agent, Robert Fraley, indicated in the Boston Globe on Monday that his client is gone after the final second has ticked off the clock in Super Bowl XXXI.

By midweek, the Kraft-Parcells battle had drawn more attention than that other little confrontation Sunday in the Superdome between the Patriots and the Green Bay Packers.

“This thing is ridiculous,” Kraft says Parcells told him on Tuesday. “We should get together.” Parcells said Wednesday’s scripted love fest was Kraft’s idea.

They can’t even agree on that.

Nevertheless, there they were, smiling like best buddies in front of the blinding light of a wall of cameras Wednesday morning on a makeshift stage at the Patriots’ hotel.

“Bob and I thought we ought to address you,” Parcells said. “With all that’s been swirling around, we want to tell you everything is the same as it’s always been. We will discuss everything when the season is over as expeditiously as possible in a civil and friendly manner.”

Kraft, however, couldn’t resist having a little fun.

“Bill and I were negotiating all last night,” he said, “and we came to an agreement on a 10-year deal for Bill to . . . be the manager of my paper and packaging company.”

If you didn’t realize it, that was a joke, folks.

And so was the whole idea.

Bob Ryan, longtime columnist for the Boston Globe, called the public display of mutual admiration “demeaning and embarrassing.”

Others were not so kind.

Kraft and Parcells might have thought they were buying time, keeping their differences private until the game is over. They certainly didn’t buy any goodwill.

Instead, a potentially distracting issue that seemed to have blown over was right back where they didn’t want it--in the headlines and on the evening news.