When the Dolphins took their team picture this season, owner Wayne Huizenga took time out from running his three Fortune 500 companies and showed up for the photo session. All the players, the head coach, the general manager, the team president and even the training and equipment staff were in the shot.

But Parcells refused to be in the photo.

Parcells wants to stay in the background like modest curtains in a gourmet kitchen. He doesn't care if people focus on the Viking stove, or the stainless steel oven, or the award-winning chef.

He just wants to blend.

But unlike the Dolphins Football organization he runs, Parcells doesn't get to call the shots on public opinion. He cannot command that his name not be uttered in connection with practically every NFL coaching or general manager vacancy that has come open the past week.

STORY IS OUT THERE

Like it or not, Parcells is in the limelight now and the attention threatens to distract his team from the more pressing issue of beating the Baltimore Ravens.

Parcells recognizes that. And he hates it.

He was genuinely angry last week when the story about his contract status shared the headlines with the Dolphins winning the AFC East. He knew the story about him possibly exercising an option that could make him a free agent once the team is sold would not die after only one day.

So Parcells basically ordered the Dolphins to ignore the story altogether. Coach Tony Sparano initially declined comment. Even quarterback Chad Pennington, Miami's most visible player, sidestepped questions about the subject as deftly as he sidesteps defensive linemen.

But ignoring the issue won't make it go away.

Huizenga eventually will complete the sale to Stephen Ross and that will trigger a clause in Parcells' contract that allows him to collect every cent owed to him while also releasing him from the deal's final three seasons. That clause would pay Parcells the remaining $9 million to $12 million owed to him and leave the Dolphins with only their 2008 accomplishments to show for the money.

It would be a financial boon for Parcells and a worst-case scenario for the Dolphins. And ignoring the issue, no matter how much Parcells would like that to happen, won't change those facts.

So what will happen?

Will Parcells go? Will he be attracted by the idea of effectively cashing in on the Dolphins and then doubling down with another team? And would the Dolphins be diminished if he leaves?

The last question is the only one that has a certain answer. The Dolphins would be seriously weakened. Not crippled, but severly handicapped.

"He's the guy that put all this stuff together," defensive end Vonnie Holliday said. "His wisdom, his experience, it's invaluable. You can't put a dollar value on it. As good as [general manager] Jeff Ireland is at his job and Coach Sparano at his job, it all came to be because of Parcells. He put the right people in the right places. And that's what he has the ability to do."

HIS RESPONSIBILITIES

The depressing thing -- if you believe Parcells is leaving -- is that his ability stretches far beyond putting chess pieces in the correct spot on a board.

Even as he has tried to stay behind a curtain of anonymity this season, refusing to discuss the Dolphins or himself, Parcells has injected himself into every aspect of the Dolphins organization.

He attends just about every practice. He breaks down tape. He does not travel to road games because he hates flying, but by the time players report to work Monday after those out of town games, Parcells already has studied what happened on tape.

"You hardly see him around on game day or during games, but he's watching," tight end David Martin said. "He knows everything that's going on . . . Stuff you don't really think about, he thinks about."

Parcells isn't the coach so Sparano always delivers messages to the team. But that doesn't prevent Parcells from delivering messages to individual players.

He's given young offensive lineman Andy Alleman pointers on how to block better by getting lower. He's warned running back Patrick Cobbs against letting success and ego get the better of him. He's constantly tweaking linebacker Akin Ayodele to motivate and inspire.

Before the Buffalo game in December, Parcells referred Holliday and rookie Phillip Merling to a tape in which Buffalo offensive tackle Jason Peters was seen leveling an opponent.

"He wanted to show me Peters really giving it to a guy, blowing him off the ball," Holliday said. 'He's always doing things like that. He told Merling, too. He said, 'Hey, young boy, you come over here. You guys look at this together and tell me what you think.' "

Whatever you think of Parcells after the team is sold, it bears remembering the man has a right to make whatever decision he believes best suits him.

But don't be surprised if after that consequential call is made, there is no pomp announcing what Parcells has decided.

The information will get out somehow -- while Parcells stays in the background trying to blend.

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