Hey Pats fans - I have another question for you guys...

[PatsDeb]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

When BB was hired a lot of people I know, including me, thought, "What the he!! is Kraft doing, hiring that loser from Cleveland{and then giving away draft picks for him to boot)." Good thing I don't run the team!!

 

[BrocktonBomber]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

I assumed we would pick up an elite QB from a late round, win 3 Super Bowls, and become the team of the decade fast forward 10 years later.

I saw that coming a mile away

 

[PatFan1932]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

I was thinking if we could only get some WR that don't drop the ball

 

[fair catch fryar]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

While I was relieved to see Pete Carroll let go. I always felt bad for him because he really never had much a chance considering the way Parcells screwed the Pats and plucked away a future HOF RB in Curtis Martin. It was poetic justice during that news conference when BB resigned as HC of the Jets and came to the Pats. As far as the franchise QB who would lead the Pats to all their success so far and counting....no one except Patjew would've been able to call that one. Besides, I was still sucking on my "Bledsoe binky" and always figured I'd at least get to watch a QB follow in the steps of Dan Marino and not Joe Montana. Boy, am I glad I was wrong!

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

Yep, pretty much ditto what you guys were saying. Then when I found out it came w/draft picks, I was past suspicious... I was like "really? For a guy that's not even a head coach... really???" I did NOT like the idea that the guy who rocketed straight to the middle in Cleveland was supposed to be the savior... but I figured, what the hell, we had our 1 shot per decade in the mid-90s, we'll bumble our way into another shot in the 2000s if we're lucky... then maybe this time we'll get EVEN CLOSER TO WINNING ONE...

Playing the Rams I thought, crap, we didn't draw some middle-tier team, we drew the monster Super Bowl. It may not be '85 all over again (because we'd played the Rams close in the regular season,) but then again, it may just be.

That turned out okay though

PFnV

 

[PatsDeb]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

I just remember Pete Carroll tooling away in his sports car (didn't it have a license plate that said, CA GUY or something like that?). leaving us with the BB mess, and thinking, "We're doomed."

Ha Ha. Joke's on me!!

 

[shmessy]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

Yep, pretty much ditto what you guys were saying. Then when I found out it came w/draft picks, I was past suspicious... I was like "really? For a guy that's not even a head coach... really???" I did NOT like the idea that the guy who rocketed straight to the middle in Cleveland was supposed to be the savior... but I figured, what the hell, we had our 1 shot per decade in the mid-90s, we'll bumble our way into another shot in the 2000s if we're lucky... then maybe this time we'll get EVEN CLOSER TO WINNING ONE...

Playing the Rams I thought, crap, we didn't draw some middle-tier team, we drew the monster Super Bowl. It may not be '85 all over again (because we'd played the Rams close in the regular season,) but then again, it may just be.

That turned out okay though

PFnV

I hear ya, PFiV. particularly about SB36.

I remember before the game lamenting how we keep drawing the MONSTER champion coronation each time. Bears '85, Packers '96 and now Rams'01. One day, I thought, the PATRIOTS will be the big story instead of some Red Klotz-Washington Generals foil to the Harlem Globetrotters. Some day the Patriots would be the important team that Pat Summerall and John Madden focus on.

Words cannot describe how I felt for 7 seconds when Roman Phifer stripped the ball from Kurt Warner and Tebucky Jones (yes, TEBUCKY JONES!!!!!!!) ran the most ridiculously bedlam-inducing 99 yards to win the Super Bowl...........I'm a grown man and I never "lose it" during any game, but I for a few seconds there I lost all control of (almost!) every function.

OK, the Vinatieri kick was pretty good too.

 

[PatsDeb]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

I hear ya, PFiV. particularly about SB36.

I remember before the game lamenting how we keep drawing the MONSTER champion coronation each time. Bears '85, Packers '96 and now Rams'01. One day, I thought, the PATRIOTS will be the big story instead of some Red Klotz-Washington Generals foil to the Harlem Globetrotters. Some day the Patriots would be the important team that Pat Summerall and John Madden focus on.

Words cannot describe how I felt for 7 seconds when Roman Phifer stripped the ball from Kurt Warner and Tebucky Jones (yes, TEBUCKY JONES!!!!!!!) ran the most ridiculously bedlam-inducing 99 yards to win the Super Bowl...........I'm a grown man and I never "lose it" during any game, but I for a few seconds there I lost all control of (almost!) every function.

OK, the Vinatieri kick was pretty good too.

My husband and I went to SB 36. He is obsessed with being late, so we were like the first people in the Superdome, probably a good 2 hours prior to kickoff. Our seats were in the rafters, about 3 rows from the top of the stadium, right on the goal line (Ty Law ran in his INT for a TD right in front of us). There were no players or football people on the field (only TV or other people dealing with putting on the game) EXCEPT BB was sitting on the bench, arms spread eagle, stretched out with his legs crossed, like he was relaxing on his yacht. We looked at him through our binoculars and he was smiling. My husband and I looked at eachother and said, "Oh my God, he has a plan and we are going to win!" That game was pure joy - we weren't supposed to be there; the odds were so stacked against us; there really wasn't alot of pressure to win because nobody (except BB) thought we would. Ah bliss.

 

[Patspsycho]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

BTW, this two weeks BEFORE from Belichick's own future-insider (if anyone wants to pay for the full archived version, I'm sure it's a hoot):

Boston Globe Historic Archives

"FOXBOROUGH - There were several cameras staked outside of Foxboro Stadium yesterday. I still can't believe one of them was not from the "E!" network. Really, it wasn't clear what exactly was happening here. Was this Pete Carroll's dismissal or was it his former players' re-creation of the arrival scene at the Academy Awards?

Why? Because the Patriots are in trouble. It's one thing to have problems and know you have them. It's quite different to be descending toward the belly of a canyon without realizing it. That's where Robert Kraft and his team are this morning. In the past 48 hours, they have actually flirted with becoming worse without Carroll. I say flirted because Kraft might have completed the disaster if Bill Parcells hadn't done him a huge favor by resigning as head coach of the Jets yesterday.

If Parcells hadn't resigned, Kraft would have tried to hire his top assistant, Bill Belichick. Instead, Belichick is the No. 1 football man for the New York Jets, an organization he will destroy if Parcells doesn't hold his hand - especially when it's time to draft players."

(the rest can be purchased for $4.95 at the link, but you get the picture - - color me a shade suspicious of anyone here claiming they were 100% ecstatic back then).

If it was Shanknancy who wrote that, I will buy it and freaking frame it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

BB was sitting on the bench, arms spread eagle, stretched out with his legs crossed, like he was relaxing on his yacht.

Got a good chuckle from that line...

 

[shmessy]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

If it was Shanknancy who wrote that, I will buy it and freaking frame it.

Holley, of all people.

 

[shmessy]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

My husband and I went to SB 36. He is obsessed with being late, so we were like the first people in the Superdome, probably a good 2 hours prior to kickoff. Our seats were in the rafters, about 3 rows from the top of the stadium, right on the goal line (Ty Law ran in his INT for a TD right in front of us). There were no players or football people on the field (only TV or other people dealing with putting on the game) EXCEPT BB was sitting on the bench, arms spread eagle, stretched out with his legs crossed, like he was relaxing on his yacht. We looked at him through our binoculars and he was smiling. My husband and I looked at eachother and said, "Oh my God, he has a plan and we are going to win!" That game was pure joy - we weren't supposed to be there; the odds were so stacked against us; there really wasn't alot of pressure to win because nobody (except BB) thought we would. Ah bliss.

GREAT stuff. Thanks, deb!

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

I assumed we would pick up an elite QB from a late round, win 3 Super Bowls, and become the team of the decade fast forward 10 years later.

Wow, PJ! You know everything!

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

I was living in the Apple at the time, so I saw the whole thing through the eyes of the NY media. They gave him a hard time for how he left the Jests (and, to some extent, he deserved it for the partially coherent press conference and the resignation on the back of a ****tail napkin or whatever), but underneath everything was the recognitioin that BB would have had no autonomy had he stayed with Parcells.

The bottom line was that knowledgeable fans and writers in New York felt that the Jets had lost a potentially great coach. That turned out, obvioiusly, to be the truth.

So, I was very happy for the Pats and thought it was a stroke of luck and genius. I guarantee you that the average Jets fan who rips BB for Spygate would hand that first round pick back in a nanosecond if they could have had Belichick coaching here these last 10 seasons. In the end, that pick was part of the Jets 2000 draft when they had four first round picks; the Pats pick ended up part of a trade whereby they were able to draft Shaun Ellis (they also drafted John Abraham, Chad Pennington and Anthony Beck in that first round).

So, from my perspective at the time, it was a great move.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

My husband and I went to SB 36. He is obsessed with being late, so we were like the first people in the Superdome, probably a good 2 hours prior to kickoff. Our seats were in the rafters, about 3 rows from the top of the stadium, right on the goal line (Ty Law ran in his INT for a TD right in front of us). There were no players or football people on the field (only TV or other people dealing with putting on the game) EXCEPT BB was sitting on the bench, arms spread eagle, stretched out with his legs crossed, like he was relaxing on his yacht. We looked at him through our binoculars and he was smiling. My husband and I looked at eachother and said, "Oh my God, he has a plan and we are going to win!" That game was pure joy - we weren't supposed to be there; the odds were so stacked against us; there really wasn't alot of pressure to win because nobody (except BB) thought we would. Ah bliss.

That's a great story! Too bad you didn't have a camera with a big telephoto lens to capture the moment. What an image; a man who has made it to the pinnacle of his profession, drinking it all in for a quiet moment before all hell broke loose. Add to that the story of Brady taking a nap in the clubhouse before the game and you have a picture of confidence. Thanks for the post!

 

[Mike the Brit]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

My thoughts (through gritted teeth) were "Krafty better know what he's doing, or else."

After the debacle in Cleveland and the hammer job the press did on him as someone who couldn't manage human beings (from afar, I wasn't that knowledgeable about him then and took at face value what the press was painting about him).

I'm sure there will be alot of posters here who will claim back in January, 2000 that they said "Yes!!!! BB's a genius and we're now on our way! With Belichick here, we will now have FA's breaking down the door to play for us".

I only wish someone could post a video link of the BB presser in NY where he resigned as "HC of the NYJ". I have read reports of it that it was the single most weird press conference many of those writers had ever witnessed and ended with the NYJ GM publicly stating that he feared Belichick was mentally unstable.

It was a huge risk Kraft took - - and he paid alot for it at the time. Kudos.

Exactly.

I was in England and this stuff didn't get huge coverage, but I did hear about the Press Conference and the draft picks and I thought: either this is a brilliant master-stroke or a dysfunctional franchise has just kicked itself in the teeth again. Wait a minute, it's the Patriots ... But a master-stroke it turned out to be!

 

[Krugman]

I was optomistic,largely due to his reputation as a defensive mastermind,although I must admit I was curious with him leaving the Jets in such haste....

 

[redsx8827]

All I remember hearing from WEEI after BB's first 5-11 season was that he needed an 8-8 season in 2001 to keep his job...

 

[italia44]

Re: Hey Pats fan - I have another question for you guys...

From my recollection, all the smart words in that story came out of Balaam's ass.

That's the reason for the "bow at your feet"..............to avoid the "shrapnel".

 

[MassPats38]

I guess I took more satisfaction in Belichick thumbing his nose at the Jets because (1) news of Parcells' exit immediately after the Super Bowl loss amid talk of joining the Jets when he was to be the team's savior by making the Pats a credible threat and (2) Curtis Martin, a core of the Patriots offense going to the Jets the next season (although that was in part attributable to efforts to lowball Martin due to injury). Seeing Kraft return that favor by stealing Belichick and seeing the Jets stammer to respond was worth the price of admission, regardless of what Belichick did here. Getting those three titles with Belichick was gravy.

The link is to an article from 1997 that gives the flavor of the times at Parcells' exit.