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True, so the question is: did he walk out on the team or did he try to see out the season and then exit quietly and gracefully -- only to have the Sullivans sack him on the spot?
He didn't walk out. He (secretly, IIRC) got the UColorado job but was intending to play out the season. When the news leaked, the Sullivans suspended him for the final game or games of the regular season, but reinstated him for the playoffs (which was a crushing administered by the Oilers if my memory serves correctly).
Ok -- here's what Wikipedia says. Having read that, it is not at variance with what I can remember (I was only 10 at the time
Wikipedia said:In 1977, contract squabbles with offensive linemen John Hannah and Leon Gray resulted in discord within the team. The incident soured Fairbanks on Chuck Sullivan, who as the eldest son of team owner Billy Sullivan controlled the team's finances and had forced Fairbanks to renege on his proposed contracts with Hannah and Gray. Hannah, denied Fairbanks' promised contract by the ownership team, later argued the Sullivans "took Chuck's authority away and turned him into a liar." [3]
The following year, his division-champion Patriots seemed poised to challenge for a Super Bowl berth, but just prior to the final regular season game, Sullivan suspended Fairbanks for again breaking a contract by agreeing to serve as head coach at the University of Colorado beginning in 1979. Fairbanks was reinstated for the team's first playoff game (and the franchise's first-ever playoff game at home), but the second-seeded Patriots lost 31–14 to the fifth-seed Houston Oilers.
Unwilling to let him leave with as few consequences for his actions as had the Sooners, New England sued Fairbanks for breach of contract. During discovery for the suit, Fairbanks admitted recruiting for Colorado while still working for the Patriots. The Patriots won an injunction preventing Fairbanks from leaving. However, on April 2, 1979, a group of Colorado boosters bought out Fairbanks' contract, allowing him to leave the Patriots. Paul Zimmerman, Sports Illustrated's dean of professional football writers, has speculated that the animus surrounding Fairbanks departure from New England stemmed from the fact that, unlike the late-season departure of New York Jets coach Lou Holtz for Arkansas in 1976, "no one" felt Fairbanks "was a really nice guy."[4]
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