NFL

Jersey boy Parcells heads to Hall

Bill Parcells is known as an NFL nomad, but he left his biggest mark in New York.

His career will be celebrated tomorrow night when “Tuna” is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

“He’s quintessential to New York/New Jersey sports. You think of New Jersey bosses, it’s [Bruce] Springsteen, Parcells and the recently departed James Gandolfini,” NFL Network host and Staten Island native Rich Eisen said.

“What he did in ’86 and ’90, a Super Bowl played in the height of the Gulf War, for the city, Giants fans and the entire area, bringing back the championships and old-school way of doing things and being an extension of the Mara family, you just can’t replace someone like him.”

Eisen will be on hand, leading the network’s coverage of the inductions, which also includes Larry Allen, Cris Carter, Jonathan Ogden, Curley Culp, Dave Robinson and Warren Sapp, who also will spend time in his role as an NFL Network analyst throughout the weekend. But Parcells will be the main attraction, as it took the Giants franchise nearly 20 years to replicate the success it had under him. In the interim, their fans watched as he went to the Jets and took their cross-town foes from 1-15 to within 30 minutes of a Super Bowl in just two seasons.

“It took a very long time for the Giants to replace him, which I believe [Tom] Coughlin has done,” Eisen said. “Parcells has won two Super Bowls, one in his fourth year and one in his eighth year, and Coughlin has done the same thing. It took a Parcells disciple to do it.

“Every franchise he touched, he’s changed for the good. The Dolphins could say something different, but he didn’t coach that team. He turned the Patriots around, he turned the Jets around and he did the same thing for the Cowboys. … He is a first-rate Hall of Famer and on the pantheon of New York sports.”

Coughlin can continue to add to his legacy with the 2013 season five weeks away, and the preseason kicking off Monday with the Hall of Fame game between the Dolphins and Cowboys.

Coughlin has the same number of Super Bowl victories as Parcells, but has lacked the consistency in the seasons in between. The Giants missed the playoffs three of the past four years.

“I think Eli Manning is a Hall of Fame quarterback and Coughlin is a Hall of Fame coach, and with that you will always have a chance to succeed,” Eisen said. “Will the Giants have a chance to play for a Super Bowl in their own building? That will be exciting to watch.”

The question for the Jets isn’t whether they will be playing a home Super Bowl in February, but whether MetLife Stadium will still be home to Jets coach Rex Ryan come that time. The Jets have gone backwards since reaching back-to-back AFC title games in Ryan’s first two seasons, and many see the final year of the coach’s contract being make-or-break.

“The Jets will be a national story just because everyone talks about them with what’s happening there and New York being the media capital in the world, but they can quickly fall off the radar or shock the world,” Eisen said.