Parcells Laments decision to leave New England

[flgreen]

Bill Parcells laments decision to part ways with Patriots

Jim Corbett, USA TODAY Sports 8:17 p.m. EDT June 23, 2013

 

Story Highlights
Parcells bolted for New York Jets after 1996 Super Bowl season when Kraft wouldn't let him shop for groceries

Bill Belichick eventually succeeded Parcells in 2000 after leaving Jets staff
Parcells rues leaving a club with so much talent, including Drew Bledsoe, Curtis Martin, Willie McGinest and Adam Vinatieri

 

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Bill Parcells has one haunting memory from a coaching career that will culminate with his Aug.3 induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: his bitter post-Super Bowl XXXI divorce from the New England Patriots and owner Robert Kraft after the 1996 season.

 

"I regret leaving New England. Had we done things differently ... " Parcells recently told USA TODAY Sports. "I had a good young team there. I hated to leave that team, because I knew what we could do.

 

"I was absolutely too headstrong. And he might have been a little headstrong, too. I think both Kraft and myself, retrospectively, would have done things a little differently."

 

And the course of NFL history would have changed.

 

Parcells was succeeded in New England in 1997 by Pete Carroll, who coached the Patriots for three seasons before he was replaced by Bill Belichick in 2000.

 

The Patriots have won three Super Bowls and reached two others under Belichick, who, without the New England job available, might have remained head coach of the New York Jets for more than a day before resigning to move up the road to Foxborough, Mass.

 

Parcells and Kraft have made their peace, getting over a breakup caused by Parcells' lack of final say on building the roster, which was decided by then-director of player personnel Bobby Grier. That power struggle led Parcells to taunt Kraft with the famous line: "If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."

 

Kraft recalled the truce, which happened about 10 years ago.

 

"At a Super Bowl, Bill was standing there as I approached, and he just said to me, 'If I had to do it all over again. I would have done things differently.' And I said, 'So would I,'" Kraft told USA TODAY Sports.

 

"It would have been pretty special," Kraft said. "We were just coming at it from different times. And so much in life is timing. But in the end, we have a great relationship today. I have great respect for him. He did a great deal for our franchise. And I will forever be grateful for that."

 

Parcells didn't fly home with the Patriots from New Orleans after the Super Bowl loss to the Green Bay Packers, and he abruptly left for an advisory job with the Jets that soon became the head coaching gig.

 

Then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue had to broker a deal between the AFC East rivals, with the Jets sending four draft picks to New England in return for Kraft releasing Parcells from his Patriots contract.

 

From the perspective of retirement and tranquil setting of Saratoga's historic horse country, where he owns a home and several race horses, Parcells said he wished he and Kraft had managed their anger better

.

"We both have talked about that," Parcells said.

 

Kraft said the fundamental stress on their relationship was that he was a naive owner who had just purchased the team in 1994 and inherited a veteran, Super Bowl-winning coach — twice with the New York Giants — who was set in his ways and setting his year-to-year timetable.

 

"Look, I was a new owner," Kraft said. "I had a lot of debt. I had stardust in my eyes. I had a Hall of Fame coach. I was green and new. And I don't think Bill had ever dealt with someone like myself. He had a contract that said he'd coach year to year. And that didn't make me feel secure.

 

"When I bought the team in 1994 ... he was coaching year to year, making personnel decisions. He used to drive down to (his home in) Jupiter, Fla., at the end of the year and he'd say he'd decide whether he was coming back to coach. That didn't inspire confidence in me."

 

Parcells, who will be 19 days shy of his 72nd birthday when inducted, went on to coach the Jets to the 1998 AFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Denver Broncos. He stepped down as Jets coach after the 1999 season.

 

But his departure from the Patriots still leaves Parcells reminiscing.

 

He ticked off the names of a team that lost to Brett Favre's Packers in that 1997 Super Bowl. "You know who I had?'' Parcells asks rhetorically. "Curtis Martin, Ben Coates, Tedy Bruschi, Terry Glenn, Willie McGinest, Drew Bledsoe, Shawn Jefferson, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Troy Brown and Adam Vinatieri. Nobody knows that I signed him.''

 

And few remember it was Parcells who turned the Patriots, who were 9-39 from 1990 to 1992, into a Super Bowl team.

 

"I think we would have been a great team together at a different time," Kraft said, "me understanding what I understand now, this being my 20th season as an owner, and him being seasoned. I wish it could have worked out differently."

***

Follow Jim Corbett on Twitter @ByJimCorbett

[Sperm Edwards]

Yeah, he regrets it because the guy who was always called "Tuna helper" won when they went their separate ways and Parcells didn't.  Even with his deserved HOF entry, he knows no one ever used the word "genius" with him, let alone as liberally as it's been thrown Coach Cheater's way for the past decade-plus.  

 

In other words, he's suffering from "It Should Have Been Me Syndrome."

[T0mShane]

"Look, I was a new owner," Kraft said. "I had a lot of debt. I had stardust in my eyes. I had a Hall of Fame coach. I was green and new. And I don't think Bill had ever dealt with someone like myself. He had a contract that said he'd coach year to year. And that didn't make me feel secure.

cc: Robert Wood Johnson

[T0mShane]

Yeah, he regrets it because the guy who was always called "Tuna helper" won when they went their separate ways and Parcells didn't. Even with his deserved HOF entry, he knows no one ever used the word "genius" with him, let alone as liberally as it's been thrown Coach Cheater's way for the past decade-plus.

In other words, he's suffering from "It Should Have Been Me Syndrome."

I do think it's partly Belichick envy, but not because he's jealous of any "genius" label--they'll both be canonized eventually. I think Parcells is jealous that Kraft figured out that he needed to give his coach autonomy by the time Belichick got there. Parcells went on to work for Woody, Jerry Jones, and Stephen Ross, each of whom like to meddle in football affairs. In retrospect, Kraft was the second best owner he worked for (after Wellington Mara), and he burned that bridge. What's a little depressing is that he doesn't regret leaving the Jets. He had the young, ready-to-compete team, he had his dream staff in place, but, as with New England, he threw that away. And yet, he only regrets leaving New England.

[Sperm Edwards]

I do think it's partly Belichick envy, but not because he's jealous of any "genius" label--they'll both be canonized eventually. I think Parcells is jealous that Kraft figured out that he needed to give his coach autonomy by the time Belichick got there. Parcells went on to work for Woody, Jerry Jones, and Stephen Ross, each of whom like to meddle in football affairs. In retrospect, Kraft was the second best owner he worked for (after Wellington Mara), and he burned that bridge. What's a little depressing is that he doesn't regret leaving the Jets. He had the young, ready-to-compete team, he had his dream staff in place, but, as with New England, he threw that away. And yet, he only regrets leaving New England.

 

Well, it should be doubly-regretful since the take-home point isn't that he doesn't regret leaving the Jets.  Even if the point is made indirectly, what he regrets is having come here in the first place.  

 

I think A LOT of it is BB-envy.  More than "partly" for a guy with his sized ego. 

[Integrity28]

Yeah, he regrets it because the guy who was always called "Tuna helper" won when they went their separate ways and Parcells didn't.  Even with his deserved HOF entry, he knows no one ever used the word "genius" with him, let alone as liberally as it's been thrown Coach Cheater's way for the past decade-plus.  

 

In other words, he's suffering from "It Should Have Been Me Syndrome."

 

Yep, this pretty well sums it up.

[pedro55]

I do think it's partly Belichick envy, but not because he's jealous of any "genius" label--they'll both be canonized eventually. I think Parcells is jealous that Kraft figured out that he needed to give his coach autonomy by the time Belichick got there. Parcells went on to work for Woody, Jerry Jones, and Stephen Ross, each of whom like to meddle in football affairs. In retrospect, Kraft was the second best owner he worked for (after Wellington Mara), and he burned that bridge. What's a little depressing is that he doesn't regret leaving the Jets. He had the young, ready-to-compete team, he had his dream staff in place, but, as with New England, he threw that away. And yet, he only regrets leaving New England.

 

  I think it is a bit BB envy, but how much really?  Think about what happened when he left the Patriots.  Parcells became known as the guru who could turn any team around. Maybe not win, but turn them into a winner.  And even though Parcells didn't win it all or in the postseason, he went to the Jets and took them to the AFC Championship with Vinny T.   He took the Cowboys to the Playoffs twice , once with Quincy Carter and the other with a young Tony Romo.  

He went down to do whatever it was for the Dolphins, fired everybody, brought in a boatload of talent, and they made the playoffs with Chad Pennington.

 

 He is like the Larry Brown of the NFL.  So while BB is called a genious, he's really known as a cheater and hasn't won anything without Brady.   Parcells took 4 different teams to the playoffs and it wasn't like he had HOF QBs. And he took another team to the playoffs as a VP or whatever.   

 

  I think it says a lot that he regrets the rest of his career, including the Jets.   And who knows.  He is not a guy who likes starting or playing young QBs.  He never wanted to play Romo.  So either the Pats never win because he would be too stubborn and stick with Bledsoe, never draft Brady or Brady rides the bench till he's 30.  Or the Pats do win with Bledsoe and Brady never becomes Brady.   

[BurnleyJet]

Yeah and if he was still at the Pats, would he have Drafted Brady in the 6th? Since really that's why the Pats are where they are today.

[Blackout]

Kraft is a bad owner who got lucky by hiring a good cheater

[pointman]

F Parcells too. Most overrated POS since Nnamdi in the 2011 free agency period.

[flgreen]

Yeah and if he was still at the Pats, would he have Drafted Brady in the 6th? Since really that's why the Pats are where they are today.

 

 

 

Bingo!

 

Would have been a whole different  scouting dept. 

 

Bellichick is a genius because some scout pushed Brady.  He rolled the dice in the 6th.

 

That's it

[Bugg]

Parcells is a good coach but a very strange guy. Problem is he always was looking to the next job or situation no matter where he was instead of simply dealing with the job at hand. Bellicheat is a scumbag with the personality of a urinal cake, but grant that he at least recognized the Pats were a good situation for him and that Parcells is a manipulator.The Larry Brown comparison has a lot of truth to it; incapable of simply settling down and rooting himself in one place.

 

Would love to know what the hell happened that led to Parcells and to a lesser degree Groh to flee Robert Wood Johnson IV's NY Jets organization. Been to my son's high school games a few times where Groh was scouting prospects. A guy like Groh gets to the top of his profession and then does something that weird; made no sense. At a loss how anyone could find flying around the northeast on the Friday night before a game over being an NFL coach and Groh didn't have much success nor last very long at Virginia anyway. For Parcells, what could have been so bad that he wouldn't take a king's ransom to work in his hometown? Did Johnson throw them out, or was there something else going on?

[HessStation]

Pin the tail on the douchbag.

[Sperm Edwards]

Parcells is a good coach but a very strange guy. Problem is he always was looking to the next job or situation no matter where he was instead of simply dealing with the job at hand. Bellicheat is a scumbag with the personality of a urinal cake, but grant that he at least recognized the Pats were a good situation for him and that Parcells is a manipulator.The Larry Brown comparison has a lot of truth to it; incapable of simply settling down and rooting himself in one place.

 

Would love to know what the hell happened that led to Parcells and to a lesser degree Groh to flee Robert Wood Johnson IV's NY Jets organization. Been to my son's high school games a few times where Groh was scouting prospects. A guy like Groh gets to the top of his profession and then does something that weird; made no sense. At a loss how anyone could find flying around the northeast on the Friday night before a game over being an NFL coach and Groh didn't have much success nor last very long at Virginia anyway. For Parcells, what could have been so bad that he wouldn't take a king's ransom to work in his hometown? Did Johnson throw them out, or was there something else going on?

 

The "something else" was BB going to NE and with him would go the vaunted Parcells defense.  Also some other coaches might have gone with BB - within the division, no less - instead of staying with Parcells who was much more obvious of an a-hole than BB at the time.  So he stepped down for the purpose of contractually locking BB into the HC of the NYJ job.

 

Theoretically he could have come back and been the HC again after the compensation for BB was completed.  But he'd already quit and it's tough to coach a team you'd just quit on.

[#27TheDominator]

Autonomy?  That is what got that fat **** in trouble in the first place.  If that is what he wanted he should have taken the deal in Tampa and run things there. Instead he jumped ship every couple of years and pretend he is a hero for making the playoffs with teams.  If making the playoffs with a crappy team is what makes a "HOF coach" why aren't we cannonizing Mangini?  He wasn't even the coach in Miami and we know that guy is an idiot. 

[Scott Dierking]

It is getting more and more difficult for him to keep his name in the news. 

 

That is what this is, and that is what this man lives for

[faba]

August 3rd he goes into the Hall Of Fame - that should satisy him for a couple of days.

[T0mShane]

The "something else" was BB going to NE and with him would go the vaunted Parcells defense. Also some other coaches might have gone with BB - within the division, no less - instead of staying with Parcells who was much more obvious of an a-hole than BB at the time. So he stepped down for the purpose of contractually locking BB into the HC of the NYJ job.

Theoretically he could have come back and been the HC again after the compensation for BB was completed. But he'd already quit and it's tough to coach a team you'd just quit on.

Or, he accurately predicted that Woody Johnson was going to be the type of owner who wanted to sit in his GMs office with his legs crossed, reading a tennis magazine, while said GM was working on a negotiation. Parcells was right about Woody, wrong about Kraft.

[jgb]

Lot of parcels bashing, much of it deserved but i will note that he took a moribund franchise and started it on a pretty long run of (mostly) respectability. I cannot say whether that wouldve happened without him, but that seemed to me to be the proximate cause of the jets emerging from its death spiral. If vinny hadn't torn his Achilles, things may have been different.

[T0mShane]

Lot of parcels bashing, much of it deserved but i will note that he took a moribund franchise and started it on a pretty long run of (mostly) respectability. I cannot say whether that wouldve happened without him, but that seemed to me to be the proximate cause of the jets emerging from its death spiral. If vinny hadn't torn his Achilles, things may have been different.

On Parcells: "He's a fat moron who mishandled the quarterback position here, drafted players that performed and were therefore expensive, and had to delegate responsibilities to his hand-picked coordinators who went on to be successful all over the league!"

On Rex: "He's a jovial, Rubinesque wit who was saddled with a bad QB situation that was far out of his control, who got stuck with bad coordinators at every turn, and somehow the team has been capped out even though the far majority of the players on his team suck, leaving the cupboard bare in the event he's fired!"

[faba]

Bottom line Parcells improved this team and franchise  even though he left us hanging- just like all the places he has gone.

[PFSIKH]

Kraft is a bad owner who got lucky by hiring a good cheater

 

You are an idiot on so many levels.

 

Yeah and if he was still at the Pats, would he have Drafted Brady in the 6th? Since really that's why the Pats are where they are today.

 

Doubtful.  He was only drafted on Dick Rehbein's scouting report.  So many what-ifs?

 

-The Patriots would have been good, but Bledsoe is not a HofFer by any stretch.  I doubt they win a title if Par$ells stays.

-When and where would Belichick have ended up?

-Or Brady for that matter? 

-What becomes of the Jets?

-Where would Peyton's legacy be without having the Patriots' dynasty delaying his one and only title?

[kay_gee]

Bottom line Parcells improved this team and franchise  even though he left us hanging- just like all the places he has gone.

 

 

Kind of have to agree with this. I was pretty young early-mid 90s, but I remember the overall impression of misery. Jets kind of took the life out of my dad, he was a young guy made old by a pathetic football team.

 

But after Parcells at least got them away from laughing stock status and provided some f*cking hope.

[Blackout]

You are an idiot on so many levels.

 

Takes one to know one.

[nycdan]

I do think it's partly Belichick envy, but not because he's jealous of any "genius" label--they'll both be canonized eventually. I think Parcells is jealous that Kraft figured out that he needed to give his coach autonomy by the time Belichick got there. Parcells went on to work for Woody, Jerry Jones, and Stephen Ross, each of whom like to meddle in football affairs. In retrospect, Kraft was the second best owner he worked for (after Wellington Mara), and he burned that bridge. What's a little depressing is that he doesn't regret leaving the Jets. He had the young, ready-to-compete team, he had his dream staff in place, but, as with New England, he threw that away. And yet, he only regrets leaving New England.

 

Parcells never worked for Woody.   He left before Woody bought in.  Groh coached in 2000. 

[T0mShane]

Parcells never worked for Woody. He left before Woody bought in. Groh coached in 2000.

Parcells was the Jets GM in 2000.

[Klecko73isGod]

Where's his apology for completely fumbling his departure from the Jets, including his writing a book about his last year ever as an NFL head coach only to turn around and take the Cowboys job two years later.

 

Parcells is an arrogant douche. No wonder he and Kraft are giving each other reacharounds right now.

[pedro55]

Where's his apology for completely fumbling his departure from the Jets, including his writing a book about his last year ever as an NFL head coach only to turn around and take the Cowboys job two years later.

 

Parcells is an arrogant douche. No wonder he and Kraft are giving each other reacharounds right now.

 

  Parcells didn't leave the Giants on great terms.  He screwed over the Bucs in a way by agreeing to take a job, then bailing on said job for whatever reason.   He would have bailed on the Giants for the Falcons if the NFL didn't intervene back in the late 80s.  And he only had one super bowl win at that time.   The NFL said no, the Giants went on to win another super bowl and then he bailed like a year or two later anyway.     

 

He is really like Larry Brown.  If the NFL didn't intervene and force him to stick with the Giants, he'd probably only have one super bowl win and a bunch of success stories that never resulted in actually winning it all.   It's hard to really build 'success' when you kind of bail on franchises every few years.  Great coach, great coach and GM who turns around a franchise quick,  but not really a guy who you would rely on to build a 'dynasty' or long term solution.   He'd be long gone before you ever got to that point.

[nycdan]

Parcells was the Jets GM in 2000.

 

Doh...My bad. 

[JoeKlecko]

Meh.  Who gives a sh*t about Parcells?  Eff him.  The truth be told, I wish he'd never left NE either.  Who knows?  With the 4 draft picks the Jets gave up for Parcells and the 2-3 they gave up for CuMar, and maybe another quality HC (maybe even Belicheat), maybe the Jets would have become the top dog, perhaps Mo Lewis would have still knocked Drew Bledsoe out (but the Pats wouldn't have taken Brady) and it would have finished off the Pats and caused a slip into dementia for Parcells like the Vinny injury here did.  

[T0mShane]

Meh. Who gives a sh*t about Parcells? Eff him. The truth be told, I wish he'd never left NE either. Who knows? With the 4 draft picks the Jets gave up for Parcells and the 2-3 they gave up for CuMar, and maybe another quality HC (maybe even Belicheat), maybe the Jets would have become the top dog, perhaps Mo Lewis would have still knocked Drew Bledsoe out (but the Pats wouldn't have taken Brady) and it would have finished off the Pats and caused a slip into dementia for Parcells like the Vinny injury here did.

The three coaches before Parcells were Coslet, Pete Carroll, and Rich Kotite. The four coaches after Parcells were Al Groh, Herm, Mangini, and Rex. Chances are good that they weren't hiring anyone better than Parcells.

[jgb]

Meh.  Who gives a sh*t about Parcells?  Eff him.  The truth be told, I wish he'd never left NE either.  Who knows?  With the 4 draft picks the Jets gave up for Parcells and the 2-3 they gave up for CuMar, and maybe another quality HC (maybe even Belicheat), maybe the Jets would have become the top dog, perhaps Mo Lewis would have still knocked Drew Bledsoe out (but the Pats wouldn't have taken Brady) and it would have finished off the Pats and caused a slip into dementia for Parcells like the Vinny injury here did.  

Incredible, guy literally patched the titanic and raised it back to the surface and he is being criticized here for not also sailing it all the way home.

[Sperm Edwards]

We also would have had Peyton Manning. Maybe.

[T0mShane]

We also would have had Peyton Manning. Maybe.

And five rings. And hoverboards.

[#27TheDominator]

And five rings. And hoverboards.

 

 

Where is my flying car?!?!  I was promised a flying car!!