Parcells Makes His First Move, Fires GM

Bill Parcells's expected housecleaning has begun in Miami.

Parcells, the Dolphins' newly hired executive vice president of football operations, fired Randy Mueller yesterday as the team's general manager.

Mueller had been hired to work with the club's previous coach, Nick Saban, and helped assemble the roster that produced this season's 1-15 record.

It had been expected when Parcells accepted an offer last week from Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga to oversee the franchise's football operations that he would hire a new general manager and probably a new coach. The leading candidate to succeed Mueller could be Dallas Cowboys scouting executive Jeff Ireland. He worked closely with Parcells when Parcells was the Cowboys' coach.

Parcells is scheduled to meet today with Dolphins Coach Cam Cameron. Parcells might want to hire a coach with whom he has worked closely in the past.

The Baltimore Ravens' Brian Billick was the only NFL head coach fired yesterday, that after the 32 teams combined to make 17 head coaching changes the previous two offseasons. The Ravens join the Atlanta Falcons in the coaching market. Other coaches around the league, including San Francisco's Mike Nolan, could learn their fate in the coming days. Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson still hasn't said publicly if he's retaining Coach John Fox and General Manager Marty Hurney. The Kansas City Chiefs are retaining Carl Peterson as their president and GM and Herman Edwards as their coach even after a 4-12 season.

The only other significant move announced yesterday also involved a general manager. Marv Levy informed the Buffalo Bills that he was resigning. The Hall of Fame coach returned to the franchise that he once led to four Super Bowl appearances to serve as its general manager the last two seasons. The Bills finished with a 7-9 record this season and failed to make the playoffs for an eighth straight year. Levy's resignation as general manager came 10 years to the day after he resigned as the Bills' coach.

"I feel compelled now to turn my energies and my time to other endeavors that intrigue me," Levy said in a written statement issued by the Bills.

Order in the Draft Room

The league announced the tentative selection order for the NFL draft in April. The Dolphins will have the top overall choice and the St. Louis Rams will pick second. The Falcons or Oakland Raiders will select third, to be determined by a coin flip because they're tied in the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker. The Chiefs also are tied but will pick after the Raiders because the Raiders finished behind the Chiefs in the AFC West.

The New England Patriots, they of the 16-0 regular season record, have the seventh overall choice, having obtained the first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in a trade. The Patriots were stripped of their own first-rounder by Commissioner Roger Goodell as punishment for the spying incident in the opening week of the season. . . .

The knee injuries suffered by center Shaun O'Hara and linebacker Kawika Mitchell during the New York Giants' loss to the Patriots on Saturday night might keep them out of this weekend's first-round NFC playoff game at Tampa. O'Hara and Mitchell sprained medial collateral ligaments. Cornerback Sam Madison strained an abdominal muscle but could be ready to face the Buccaneers. Rookie safety Craig Dahl suffered a season-ending knee injury.