Never mind Berry, what about Fairbanks. He did an amazing job. He left under difficult circumstances also but no where near as despicable as Parcells.
What disqualifies Parcells from being worthy is obvious.
Berry was outstanding with one, horrible, terrible exception:
Starting and playing Eason in Super Bowl XX. And a year later in Denver. And in 1988 in Week 15.
The big black (sorry) mark for Holovak is described by
@jmt57 :
Walter Beach was drafted by the Giants in 1960, then signed with the Patriots early in their inaugural season. He played in 18 games for the Pats with one interception. Beach also played a bit on offense (with nine receptions and six carries) and on special teams (seven kickoff returns and one punt return). Beach had one touchdown with the Pats, a 51 yard reception from Butch Songin against the Chargers. Walter Beach also spent four seasons with the Cleveland Browns and was a starting corner on that team's last NFL championship, in 1964.
Beach grew up two houses from a civil rights lawyer named Milton Henry and his family. Fast forward a bit, to
a 1962 preseason game in New Orleans that led to the Patriots cutting Beach:
He had been released by the Boston Patriots of the American Football League the previous year, after he organized a protest by the black players on the team against segregated accommodations in New Orleans, where Boston was scheduled to play a preseason game. While the white Patriots were set to stay in a luxury hotel, the black players were to stay with black families.
“I told them we signed up to play football, not to be segregated against,” Beach said. He told
Mike Holovak, the Patriots’ coach at the time, that he would fly down the day of the game and then fly back to Boston after the game was over.
Identified as a troublemaker, Beach was cut the next day.