Excellent Article: How BB Came to be the Coach of the NEP

Another superb Grantland article:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/bill-belichick-new-england-patriots-trade-new-york-jets/

Yes but this line drives me nuts: "The 14-point underdogs lost to the Packers, 35-21, and Parcells quickly grew antsy. He left New England after various disagreements with Kraft..."

That implies that he left after the loss. He left BEFORE the loss! He had already negotiated his move to the Jets during the Superbowl week! That was a winnable game. Parcells screwed us.

But otherwise, I like the article!

Parcells is a lying hypocritical scumbag. There are documented phone records during Superbowl Week from his hotel room in New Orleans to Jets offices in Hempstead, New York.
The guy was negotiating his new deal with the Jets while in New Orleans getting ready to play in the Super Bowl as the head coach of the Pats.
An Immoral and dishonest cutthroat and nothing more.
As a Pats fan I'd punch him in the mouth the first chance I got.

Great article. Lots of interesting details and very interesting analysis.

The author says that in the end the Jets traded Bill Belichick to the Pats and got the 16th overall pick in the 2000 draft (Shawn Ellis) in return. "All things considered, Belichick for what basically boils down to Ellis has to be one of the best trades in the history of the NFL."

mosi said:

Yes but this line drives me nuts: "The 14-point underdogs lost to the Packers, 35-21, and Parcells quickly grew antsy. He left New England after various disagreements with Kraft..."

That implies that he left after the loss. He left BEFORE the loss! He had already negotiated his move to the Jets during the Superbowl week! That was a winnable game. Parcells screwed us.

But otherwise, I like the article!

Click to expand...

Corrrect - and there is absolutely no excuse for not focusing on your team when your team is in the Super Bowl

That being said I think pretty much everyone - including Kraft - would admit that he's had a change of heart when it comes to taking away football decisions from the head coach.

Kraft's change is effectively what brought Belichick here in the first place. Kraft learned from his mistake with Parcells.

And Belichick - knowing Parcells would be calling most of the personnel shots as President of the Jets, wasn't about to stand for that same situation in New Jersey (it was kindof slimy how Parcells and the Jets tried to to a quick shuffle to corner Belichick into being the HC of the NYJ without full autonomy and in Parcell's shadow. They should have known better than to try to outsmart BB.

But saying Parcells was justified in being miffed is not the same thing as saying Parcells was justified in negotiating his next job when he should have been focused on the Super Bowl