Making A Case for Chuck Fairbanks for the Patriots Hall

[AQPE]

Makes me wonder what would have happened had Belichick come here with the Sullivans still owning the team.

What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub?

 

[The Gr8est]

Makes me wonder what would have happened had Belichick come here with the Sullivans still owning the team.

As he did with the prospect of working under Woody Johnson, he wouldn't have stayed under the Sullivans.

There were ****tail napkins in the 70s right?

I still love the way BB left the Rats. Is there a way that would have shown more contempt than the dismissive way he left them?

It was a thing of beauty, and richly deserved. That ****tail napkin should be in Canton.

 

[cupofjoe1962]

Anyone who does not know the history. The Patriots had a good team in 1978 & word got out that Fairbanks was leaving to coach Colorado at the end of the season.

The Patriots were upset in the Playoffs at home by the Houston Oilers.

When Fairbanks and the Patriots left the field at the end of the game... Everyone in the sections near the tunnel ( I was in section#3 ) sang ...
Good bye Chuckie
Good bye Chuckie
Good bye Chuckie
We are glad to see you go.

They played the fans singing on the news that night.

Parcells did the same thing, he just didn't lose his last game in Foxboro.

 

[Patriotic]

Chuck Fairbanks was a great assembler of talent. He brought the Pats out of the Dark Ages. But he was mediocre as a game manager. We'd often get early leads as the Pats were the more talented team but fade as the game went on as the opposition made in game adjustments. And what he had to put up with the Sullivans, it's no wonder that he left. In all, I agree with others that Fairbanks was the second best coach in Patriot history.

 

[tom444]

The Patriots were upset in the Playoffs at home by the Houston Oilers.

I was at that game also, the Patriots were an embarrassment. Well, except for Hannah. As for Fairbanks. After he went to Colorado he had an anal attentive nervous breakdown.

This is off topic, but very interesting. I had forgotten that it took into the 70s for parts of the south to accept black football players.

"Pac-12 Networks sits down with USC football's Sam Cunningham, who shares what it was like traveling to Birmingham to play in the first-ever integrated football game in Alabama."

Pac-12 Living Legend: USC football's Sam Cunningham

 

[mgteich]

Parcells should not be there either......without BB, he's done nothing

The same argument could be made with regard to Belichick. Some folks think that he is nothing without Brady.

This line of argument gives us one HOF in the past 15 years: Brady.
=================
I disagree with this kind of analysis.

 

[IllegalContact]

The same argument could be made with regard to Belichick. Some folks think that he is nothing without Brady.

This line of argument gives us one HOF in the past 15 years: Brady.
=================
I disagree with this kind of analysis.

in that case, line up ray berry and/or ron meyer.....parcells didn't achieve anything that wasn't already done in these parts

in fact, why not throw pete carroll in there? he won more playoff games than fairbanks did

the manner in which both parcells and fairbanks left make them unworthy of being in the Pats HOF

it is not an unreasonable assertion that parcells set up the pats to lose the SB

 

[patfanken]

This is an interesting topic to me because it only reminds me how bad the Sullivan's were as owners and how much credit they got (or rather stole) for bringing professional football to Boston. People forget that the Patriots were formed as a public stock company. Sullivan shortly forced out the other stockholders in a very shady deal to become the sole owners. The other stockholders received pennies on the dollar for their shares.

People forget what horrible business men they were. Even in the 80's when the NFL was making money hand over foot, the Sullivans were a financial disaster. People don't remember how horrible the practicing conditions were for the players and how bad the stadium was. The NFL was literally a money tree and the Sullivan's totally screwed it up, and it wasn't just the Micheal Jackson tour.

Now I'm not sure whether Chuck Fairbanks is a good candidate for the Pats HOF, but I DO know he has better credentials than Bill Parcells. and I'd argue that one to the death. Fairbanks didn't take that job in Colorado because he wanted to. The fact is that it was his only escape. The mismanagement of the Sullivans was making his job here untenable. He was driven out of town, and knowing what I know NOW, I don't blame him. At the time I bought the media line that he took the money and ran out on us. That is so far from the truth.

Bottom line he turned around a bad franchise and had a much better record than Parcells and left because he couldn't take working for Billy Sullivan.

 

[Jackson 2]

This is an interesting topic to me because it only reminds me how bad the Sullivan's were as owners and how much credit they got (or rather stole) for bringing professional football to Boston. People forget that the Patriots were formed as a public stock company. Sullivan shortly forced out the other stockholders in a very shady deal to become the sole owners. The other stockholders received pennies on the dollar for their shares.

People forget what horrible business men they were. Even in the 80's when the NFL was making money hand over foot, the Sullivans were a financial disaster. People don't remember how horrible the practicing conditions were for the players and how bad the stadium was. The NFL was literally a money tree and the Sullivan's totally screwed it up, and it wasn't just the Micheal Jackson tour.

Now I'm not sure whether Chuck Fairbanks is a good candidate for the Pats HOF, but I DO know he has better credentials than Bill Parcells. and I'd argue that one to the death. Fairbanks didn't take that job in Colorado because he wanted to. The fact is that it was his only escape. The mismanagement of the Sullivans was making his job here untenable. He was driven out of town, and knowing what I know NOW, I don't blame him. At the time I bought the media line that he took the money and ran out on us. That is so far from the truth.

Bottom line he turned around a bad franchise and had a much better record than Parcells and left because he couldn't take working for Billy Sullivan.

Good points. I remember when I first got married we lived in Franklin and the Patriots practice field was the King Phillip High School field in Wrentham. And, that wasn't during their AFL days, but in the mid-70s when they had been an NFL team for several years.

 

[Jackson 2]

I was at that game also, the Patriots were an embarrassment. Well, except for Hannah. As for Fairbanks. After he went to Colorado he had an anal attentive nervous breakdown.

This is off topic, but very interesting. I had forgotten that it took into the 70s for parts of the south to accept black football players.

"Pac-12 Networks sits down with USC football's Sam Cunningham, who shares what it was like traveling to Birmingham to play in the first-ever integrated football game in Alabama."

Pac-12 Living Legend: USC football's Sam Cunningham

I, also, was at that playoff game against Houston. I vividly remember walking up to the stadium and seeing loads of people selling their tickets for a small fraction of their face values. The pre-game vibe was ultra-negative with a prevailing feeling that the Pats had no chance. That prevailing feeling proved to be a correct one.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

He absolutely fleeced the 49ers in an incredibly one-side trade for Jim Plunkett (3 #1's, 1 #2 and back up QB Tom Owen).

The Patriots turned those picks into C/G Pete Brock, CB Mike Haynes, CB Raymond Clayborn and RB Horace Ivory in the 2nd round. That's some Hall of Fame drafting on top of the fleecing. It could have been a dynasty.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

The Patriots became respectable under Fairbanks. He inherited a team that went 13-29 in the three previous season an went 46-39 with NE. (this record included a 5-9 start in 1973 and an injury plagued 3-11 1975 season).

His teams featured (arguably) the best running attack in league history and were innovators on defense, bringing the 3-4 into prominence.

Not just "arguably". The 1978 Patriots set and still hold the all-time NFL single-season team rushing record.