Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) were standing beside their Chevy Nova, admiring the detail job they’d just completed.

In about half an hour, they’d turned the car’s interior from a gory murder scene into something suitable for show on the salesroom floor.

When Mr. Wolf (Harvey Keitel), who was brought in to help Jules and Vincent “solve” their problem, congratulated them upon inspecting the results, the two swelled with pride.

That was when Mr. Wolf quickly reminded them, crudely but effectively, that they weren’t out of the woods just yet, or the nearest prison, as the case was.

There was still plenty of work to do, such as, for example, disposing of the evidence, including the headless body.

My favorite scene from Pulp Fiction popped to mind during the holidays watching Jerry Jones admit, finally, that he was in such a fix with his football team that he needed to call someone else to solve the problem, as Mr. Wolf did for Jules and Vincent. Jones just didn’t say so. He didn’t have to. His actions spoke for him.

Bill Parcells!

Despite being a mercenary, Parcells wouldn’t consider coming to Dallas for all the cheddar in Wisconsin if Jones refused to cede considerable control of this club.

Should Parcells sign the four-year contract believed to be sitting in his lap, those of us who’ve criticized Jones for extending his tentacles too far will have Jones to harp on no more. He will have done the right thing this time, getting an experienced, winning pro football coach and letting him run the team.

But as Mr. Wolf (who doesn’t seem as shameful as Parcells has become) would remind, there still is a lot of work to do, and that is not a reference to making sure Parcells doesn’t balk at yet another contract offer. It is a reference to cleaning up the mess at Valley Ranch.

For Parcells is a coach, not a magician, no matter what he did in New England and with the Jets. And times have changed in the few years since he last bailed a floundering franchise out of deep water. No matter how good of a coach you are, or have been, you just can’t roll into a new town these days and turn fortunes around with a snap. Ask Mike Holmgren.

When Parcells was winning Super Bowls, he could spend his boss’s money to get pretty much anyone he figured he needed. The salary cap has since hardened to the point that he will find that just about impossible, and the Cowboys are just getting out of what Jones once called salary-cap hell.

Not only that, but Parcells would have to find a way to be successful in Dallas without most of the staff he so trusted here and there. That was one of the things that tripped him up as a would-be Tampa Bay coach.

He and his potential employer were warned that they could be charged with tampering if reports were true that they were trying to pry loose certain assistants under contract around the league.

In the wake of the hands-off warning, Parcells walked away from the Tampa Bay deal. It wasn’t going to be as easy as he hoped.

Neither will turning around the Cowboys.