We've been here before, believe it or not

If you're somewhat new to all this Parcells-Belichick business, you could be forgiven for thinking that tonight's Patriots-Cowboys game will be the first time the two Bills have met as rival head coaches in the National Football League. This is being sold, and with very good reason, as a right proper matchup of heavyweight coaches (literally true in one case). Bill Parcells, by any measure one of the all-time great NFL coaches, will be putting a team on the field against a squad coached by the equally great (say some) Bill Belichick, master of defensive obfuscation.

'Twasn't always so. The cold fact of the matter is that this will be the fifth time these two have met in this sort of competition. And in none of the other competitions was there any doubt about who was the marquee figure. In fact, it would only be a slight excursion into hyperbole to suggest that the number of times Bill Belichick's name was even mentioned in these pages, before or after the four previous games in question, barely reached double figures. You would have thought the other team was being coached by either a robot or a committee, not by a former Bill Parcells acolyte named Bill Belichick.

That team was the Cleveland Browns, coached by Belichick from 1991 through 1995. Belichick's springboard was his role as Parcells's defensive coordinator for a two-time champion New York Giants team. He was hardly a coaching unknown, but because he conveyed the personal aura of a kumquat, he was not given much personal pub. He didn't want to give you anything, and so he got nothing.

The first time he coached against his old mentor was on Dec. 19, 1993. It was Game 16 of the Patriots' season. After starting out 1-11 in Parcells's inaugural season, the Patriots had beaten Cincinnati by a rousing 7-2 score. The next game would be in Cleveland, a team coached by whatsisname.

The first time Belichick's name even appeared in these pages was on the Thursday preceding the game. At the tail end of his daily notebook, our Ron Borges reported that "Cleveland coach Bill Belichick said he and his former boss, Bill Parcells, used to be racquetball rivals." Belichick said he had a plan to beat Parcells on the court: "When Bill was in shape, he was pretty rough. The key was to get him when he's not in tiptop shape."

That was it. No extensive Bill vs. Bill analysis was attempted. The big local issue of the week was that veteran Matt Bahr had been signed to replace Scott "Missin' " Sisson as the Patriots kicker. The two concerns with the Browns were the size of their defensive line and trying to contain Eric Metcalf, not the devious nature of a Belichick defense.

The Patriots won, 20-17. The only mention of Belichick came in the "Bests and Worsts" from our Michael Madden, who noted under "Worst Play-Calling" that the Browns coach had "twice called for runs by slow-footed `T.T.' Vardell on a first-and-goal at the 7 in the fourth quarter after the Browns had passed the ball down the field; neither went anywhere."

Oh, and it was reported that a Cleveland fan came up to Parcells and told him, "We got the wrong Bill."

Bill vs. Bill No. 2 took place on Nov. 6, 1994. The Patriots came into the game at 3-5. Once again, there was no mention whatsoever of Belichick's name until Thursday, when the great Will McDonough wrote a column detailing Belichick's unusual path to becoming an NFL head coach. As Will correctly pointed out, few NFL personnel had even played at Andover.

Parcells, already the story anyway, became The Story when he complained of dizzy spells and was forced to spend Thursday night at Massachusetts General Hospital (he checked out fine). Belichick? Who? Not a single mention on Friday or Saturday. Ah, but in the pregame capsules section titled "Coaching/Intangibles" in the Sunday paper, readers were informed to "Look for Parcells to teach his former `student' a thing or two about game tactics."

Ahem. Cleveland won, 13-6. Belichick's name was not mentioned in any postgame account.

Bill vs. Bill No. 3 took place on Jan. 1, 1995. It turned out that the previous Cleveland game had been the last Patriots loss of the regular season. The team had won its last seven games, and this was a first-round playoff game.

This time we got right to the story. On Tuesday, Belichick and Parcells were asked to discuss their relationship -- finally! -- and this is what the readers got.

Belichick: "Bill is a good friend of mine and a damn good coach. I have a lot of respect for him, but I've got a job to do, and he's got a job to do. It's a business."

Parcells: "I have a very strong personal feeling for Bill. So there is almost a little bit of a mixed emotion when there are some personal things involved."

Belichick was having a rough go in Cleveland. Simply put, the fans hated him for having cut local fave Bernie Kosar the year before, as well as for just generally having no personal pizzazz. The Friday paper reported Cleveland left tackle Tony Jones as saying, "I don't even know if winning the Super Bowl will take care of it. Bill made an unpopular decision and some people aren't going to let it go. I thought our record this year [11-5] would take care of things, but it hasn't."

That was all the Belichick discussion we had prior to that game. The Browns won, 20-13. It was the same story when the teams met again in the opener of 1995, only a scant mention of the "looser" Belichick in Cleveland. After the Patriots won the game, 17-14, we never bothered with Belichick afterward. We had our own issues.

Now? A trillion words have been written, a trillion spoken. It's all Bill, all the time. It's Big Bill vs. Little Bill, the Old Bill vs. the New Bill, but it's definitely BILL vs. BILL this time around.

I guess winning a Super Bowl makes a difference, huh?

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.