DAVIE, Fla., Dec. 27 — Admitting that “I can’t get the game out of my system,” Bill Parcells came to South Florida on Thursday and began taking the first small steps toward reversing the fortunes of the woebegone Miami Dolphins, a 1-14 team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since the 2001 season and hasn’t won a Super Bowl since January 1974.

Parcells accepted the position of executive vice president of football operations last week, and arrived at the team’s facility in time to watch practice for the final game of the season at home Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. He said he had a brief chat with Coach Cam Cameron, but will make no immediate decisions on the future of his head coach, general manager or any other front-office personnel.

During a 25-minute news conference, his first meeting with the local media began at 6 p.m., just in time to be the lead story on the local news on every Miami television station. He was purposely vague on most issues, but insisted that at age 66, he has no intention of coaching the football team, or serving as the general manager.

Team owner Wayne Huizenga, who attended the news conference but did not speak with the media, signed Parcells to a four-year contract that reportedly will pay him in the range of $3 million a year to “oversee the structure” of the organization and get everyone on the same philosophical page, Parcells said.

“I’m just trying to be a good team member and put a structure in place that will serve the Dolphins well now and in the long term,” Parcells said. “Philosophical compatibility is something that has to be discussed. I don’t view myself as a narrow-minded person. But along the lines of player acquisition, it’s important that the whole organization be compatible.

“I would hope that I could develop a relationship with people here that will allow us to bounce ideas off one another and hopefully it will be beneficial to the team with the experiences I’ve had in the NFL and with various franchises.”

Those experiences include being the only coach ever to take four different teams to the playoffs, including two Super Bowl championships with the New York Giants and a Super Bowl appearance with the New England Patriots.

Parcells coached the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs in 2006, and also helped build a Dallas team that is now 13-2, the NFC East champion and the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Sixteen of the Cowboys’ 22 starters this year were acquired during Parcells’s four years in Dallas, and 36 of the 53 players on the 2007 roster joined the club while Parcells coached the team.

Parcells said he met Cameron, now completing his first season as the Dolphins’ head coach, last year and had heard good things about him from former Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight, one of his best friends since both coached at West Point in the 1970s. Cameron played basketball for Knight at Indiana and also considers him a good friend.

Parcells indicated he had done some business in the past with current Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller, but did not know him well. Mueller is completing his third season as the team’s general manager.

The Dolphins will have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and Parcells said it was far too soon to determine whether he will keep the choice, or try to use it to trade down and acquire more picks.

“This pick has developed into a very economically consequential decision,” he said. “If you make the pick at that spot and you’re wrong, it’s a real bad thing for your team for quite awhile. If we keep the pick, we’ll try to pick a player who will be a factor for an extended period of time.”

Parcells said he would “set a prototypical standard for each position and try not to make too many exceptions in that regard.” He also said he’d be looking for “good character people. I don’t want bad characters on the team. I don’t want any problem children.”

SAN DIEGO — The Holiday Bowl has long been known for wacky plays and wild finishes.

Well, add another one. And this time, the central character wasn’t a player.

Texas fans will remember Colt McCoy leading the No. 17 Longhorns to a 52-34 win Thursday night over the No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils in the first meeting between the schools and their successful coaches.

No one will forget Chris Jessie, the stepson of Texas coach Mack Brown, inadvertently becoming part of the game.

With the Longhorns leading 21-0 and the Sun Devils driving early in the second quarter, ASU’s Rudy Carpenter dropped back to pass and was hit by linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy. The ball squirted backward, toward the Longhorns’ sideline.

Jessie, a member of his stepfather’s football operations staff, stepped about a yard onto the field and was motioning toward a player when he reached down and appeared to touch the ball with his left thumb. Texas defensive tackle Roy Miller slapped the ball away from the sideline and defensive end Aaron Lewis recovered and returned it to about the ASU 44.

After a 12-minute review, officials reversed the play. They ruled that Jessie touched the ball, which is illegal interference, an unsportsmanlike foul. The ball reverted to the Sun Devils and Texas was penalized half the distance to the goal, giving ASU fourth-and-3 at the 7. Carpenter threw a touchdown pass to Chris McGaha.

“It was just natural instinct,” Jessie said. “I thought it was a forward pass. I was looking at the ball being thrown and I was waiting for a grounding penalty. When I realized the ball was in play, I jumped back.”

The gaffe didn’t end up costing the Longhorns (10-3), other than some embarrassment.

“I didn’t touch it, I didn’t touch it,” Jessie said. “The focus shouldn’t be on me. That was a great game.”

He said his stepfather told him “not to worry about it, the guys would pull it out.”

Brown joked about it afterward.

As co-host of U.S. talk show “The View,” Rosie O’Donnell may have boosted the audience by 17 percent, but it seems not everyone was a fan! The comedienne - who engaged in a very public war of words with billionaire Donald Trump a year ago - has been voted the most annoying celebrity on lifestyle Web site Parade.com, despite being off-air for six months!

O’Donnell garnered 44 percent of the vote, followed by socialite Paris Hilton on 24 percent, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on 16 percent, Beatle Paul McCartney’s estranged wife Heather Mills McCartney on 12 percent and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton on 4 percent.

In town to play the Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash (right) went out to lunch yesterday with his wife, Alejandra (center), some random guy (black jacket) — and Jessica Alba (left) and Cash Warren (center). Weird group, right?

So not only did Cash Warren knock up — and get engaged to — one of the hottest women in Hollywood, but he hangs with the two-time NBA MVP, too! What’s the deal with this guy?

She might not be sixteen, but, heck, this is Hollywood, the home of the strange and the wierd.  Reportedly, actress Jessica Alba, is pregnant and is engaged to Cash Warren.  Last week, it was announced that Britney Spears little sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, also an actress is pregnant.  So much for role models.

Speaking of role models, Hollywood on Thursday, it was announced that Mischa Barton is the next casualty of getting arrested for DUI.  Barton adds her name to the scores of stars who have been arrested for DUI this year or who have grown an albatross to bear.

Josh Groban’s and Mary J. Blige are actually two stars with good news this Christmas season.  Groban’s “Noel” now heads the pop album charts for a fifth week and Blige’s new CD “Growing Pains,” hit No. 2 with 629,000 copies.

In the land of celebrities, there is even more good news so things are not always so wacky.  Barron Hilton, announced he will donate nearly all of immense fortune to a philanthropic foundation in the family name which does great work for the needy.  Now, if some of our self-absorbed young talents would take advantage of their gifts and share with others, wouldn’t this be a much better place for all?