LAS VEGAS ? The run-up to the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao on Saturday has been unsurpassed in the area of publicity.
Now, imagine if Bill Parcells, the two-time Super Bowl-winning coach of the Giants, were somehow involved in Pacquiao?s career. The words ?Big Tuna? certainly would have appeared on fight posters.
He might have even livened up a few press conferences with the words, ?They want you to cook the dinner, at least they should let you shop for the groceries.?
It almost happened.
More than 10 years ago, Parcells was approached by Murad Muhammad, who promoted Pacquiao at the time, about lending his savvy to a fighter in need of some financial assistance.
Parcells and Muhammad were two Jersey guys, and they had a mutual friend in trainer and tailor Al Certo, from whom they bought clothes. Muhammad was concerned that Pacquiao was about to be stolen by a rival promoter.
He wanted to set up a meeting with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
?I considered (Muhammad) a friend of mine,? said Parcells, who was coaching the Cowboys back then. ?He asked me if I could get him in front of Jerry Jones.?
Sympathetic to Muhammad?s situation, Parcells set up a meeting.
The point of the get-together, to Parcells? understanding, was to convince Jones to help bankroll Pacquiao?s career, which was still in its infancy.
Parcells isn?t sure of the exact year of the meeting, but it was probably the summer of 2004.
?We went down there and (Muhammad) kind of made Jerry a proposal,? Parcells told the Daily News in a phone interview on Monday. ?And I don?t know what it would have taken but I don?t think it was really relatively that much (money) to keep Pacquiao in the fold.?
Parcells and Muhammad tried to sell Jones on the idea that Pacquiao was another cash cow, similar to Oscar De La Hoya.
?Well, there wasn?t any doubt that he was pretty good,? Parcells said of Pacquiao. ?I had the opinion he was an up- and-coming fighter, but I kind of knew from the beginning he was going to have to go up in class, in terms of weight classes, a little bit if he wanted to make the big money.?
Though he was intrigued, Jones ultimately passed on the offer, deciding he wasn?t schooled enough in boxing to make such a commitment, Parcells says. ERIC GAY/AP ?I called Jerry and gave him a pretty good needle about it,? says Parcells (l.). ?It didn?t take him long to see the potential (of Pacquiao).?
?I think Jerry may have been influenced by people on television that kind of indicated at the time that there wasn?t a great future for boxing on television,? Parcells said.
Whatever role Parcells would have played in the service of Pacquiao, who has made close to $400 million in career earnings, he believes it would have been minor if Jones had agreed to the offer.
?I don?t really think that I would have been involved at all,? he says. ?I think that I was just acting as a conduit to a place where Murad thought maybe he could get some money to hold on (to Pacquiao) and I think he was willing to maybe ? and you?d have to ask him about this ? maybe relinquish part ownership for that.?
Parcells noted that Muhammad, who couldn?t be reached for this story, never asked him to personally invest in Pacquiao.
Their paths nearly intersected again when Pacquiao fought at Cowboys Stadium against Joshua Clottey in 2010.
Parcells, who was working in the Dolphins front office at that point, said he and Jones shared a good laugh over what could have been.
?I called Jerry and gave him a pretty good needle about it,? Parcells said. ?It didn?t take him long to see (the) potential (of Pacquiao).?
Since then, Parcells has followed Pacquiao?s rise to stardom under his current promoter Bob Arum, mindful that he could have been along for the ride.
?I don?t know that connection is the right word but, yeah, of course, you can?t help but look and see and notice when he?s fighting,? Parcells said.
Parcells described his interest in boxing as psychological, since he?s always had a ?strong interest in human behavior under pressure.?
Of the fight on Saturday, Parcells said he would watch it on Pay-Per-View but wouldn?t offer a prediction.
Parcells, 73, never got a chance to meet Pacquiao. But he would like to get that chance one day.
?He seems to be quite an interesting young man,? Parcells said.
