Todd Haley: Bill Parcells Had Dan Campbell Start Fight At Cowboys Practice

Detroit Lions‘ head coach Dan Campbell is the man in Motown, but apparently he was previously Bill Parcells’ hitman on the Dallas Cowboys back in his days as a tight end.

Former Cowboys wide receivers coach Todd Haley, who was with the organization from 2004 to 2006, revealed an amazing story about Parcells and Campbell, who played for the Cowboys from 2003-05.

“Practice on a Wednesday was going bad. You could see Coach Parcells getting heated up. He was not happy with the way anything was going. There was no energy, and I see him call Dan over to the side and say a couple words to him. And Dan runs back into the huddle, and Parcells with his arms crossed like he always did, walked over to me, and he said, ‘Watch this Todd.’ A fight ensued on the next play, and Dan Campbell was in the middle of it,” Haley said on the latest edition of ESPN’s “This is Football” podcast.

“As coaches, you got to do whatever you have to do to get things going in the right direction, and he knew that Dan was his man to get in there and stir it up, and it worked. All of a sudden, everybody is hooping and hollering, excited, and good things happened from there.”

Considering Campbell’s “bite a kneecap off” line at his Lions introductory press conference and infectious passion on the sideline and in interviews, Haley’s story is, without a doubt, believable.

Campbell spent the first four seasons of his NFL career with the New York Giants (1999-2002), who selected him in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft out of Texas A&M. After the three-year stint in Dallas, the tight end spent the final three seasons of his career with the Lions (2006-08). Campbell finished his career with 91 receptions, 934 receiving yards and 11 receiving touchdowns.

As a head coach, Campbell has taken the Lions from the NFL’s basement to the party on the rooftop. After a 3-13-1 first season (2021), the Lions have posted 9-8, 12-5 and 15-2 campaigns under Campbell, highlighted by reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2023, winning back-to-back NFC North titles (2023-24) and earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC in 2024.

As for Parcells, the Cowboys became his final NFL head-coaching stint, with the franchise going a combined 34-30 under him from 2003-06, which included making the playoffs in 2003 and 2006. Of course, the Hall of Fame head coach won two Super Bowls as head coach of the Giants (1986 and 1990 seasons), helped the New England Patriots reach Super Bowl XXXI and also helped the New York Jets reach the AFC Championship Game in the 1998 season.

Meanwhile, Haley coached under Parcells on both the Jets and Cowboys and went on to have three NFL offensive coordinator gigs (Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns) and was the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2009-11. He was most recently the head coach of the then-USFL’s Memphis Showboats in 2023.

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