Be honest all of you old heads. What was your initial thought when we hired BB?

[JohnJH]

I recall Kraft and Belichick driving off together in a vehicle on a sports report on one of the local Boston area news stations. When it was officially announced, I honestly didn't know what to think. We had Bledsoe and some other talented players on the roster, but I didn't know what direction the team would ultimately end-up going in. It wasn't until the first year I was living in Wisconsin (I brought my Bledsoe jersey with me when I moved there), and watched that kick sail through the goalpost's in the Super Bowl, that I figured I at least saw my team finally win the whole thing for the first time in my life thus far, and as a fan since being a kid in the 1970's.

 

[BobDigital]

I didn't know a ton about him, so i thought we over paid. All i knew is he was the DC of the many good Parcels teams and considered basically the clear #2 in terms of importance on the non-player side of the operation. You need to keep in mind most people for a while believed 'Big Bill' was better than 'Little Bill' even after that first and even second run. Not that that is an insulting thing to say. Parcels is a coach worthy of note in NFL history.

In retrospect I'm glad we did it, and if I was more knowledgeable of a fan at the time (I was fairly young) I would have probably supported the move even with the steep price (without future knowledge). A first round pick is nice, but the value of those (for the most part) is lost every 5 years as far as importance. A competence in the Coaching office can last you over a decade. And it wasn't like we weren't in a rebuild. It only turned around so fast due to a bunch of lucky breaks, and Brady.

For instance, if we didn't have a top pick and a need at QB, I would absolutely trade a first round pick to pick up a great young coach. So if i feel that way now, why shouldn't I have felt that way about Bill?

 

[Since1960]

First reaction was - WTF!!! And we had to give up a #1 pick to get this moron!!!! Today, I’d invite him over for dinner every Sunday afternoon…. No matter how this plays out, I hope that Coach B goes on to break the all time win record and obviously a well deserved place in the Hall of Fame. The first forty years were rough, yeah even worse than today - much worse. To go through 20 years of excellence (and near excellence) is something that will probably never be duplicated and much of the credit goes to the guy with the headset telling everyone of us screaming for him to call a timeout with the Seahawks ready to score, “yeah, I got it”! And he did…..

 

[They_Hate_We]

I was working IT for a dot com before the bubble burst, and stayed glued to the Patriots newsgroup on Usenet. At the time, the newsgroup was a big nag-fest between Pats fans and Jets trolls (eff you Bob Jensen). The Jete stole Parcells and Curtis Martin from us, and apparently won the "off-season superbowl" every year.

All of a sudden, Parcells steps down and BB becomes the HC for a day of the Jete. Next thing I know, Belichick apparently quits via a note on a napkin and becomes the Pats HC. Next thing I remember, Browns fans come start trolling the Pats newsgroup telling us how screwed we were. My thought was "Great, now we got Browns trolls invading our newsgroup now".

Who would've thought that was "one" of the greatest moves in Patriots and NFL history!

 

[Ring 6]

I was really happy when we hired the Tuna, feeling like we were finally going to take winning seriously. I proceeded to pretend the Tuna wasn’t a mercenary who was just all about the Tuna and his ego and image.
I saw the change in the team in 1996 when belichick came in and knew he was the brains of the outfit. So when he came back in 2000 I felt like we had now gotten what I wished we had gotten in Parcells. And the rest is epic history.

 

[everlong]

A lot of the players liked the hire and Bill definitely wasn't going to let the team and press walk all over him like the poodle so I was in favor of it. That said I in no way thought it was a slam dunk choice.

 

[ohiopatsfan]

Living near Cleveland, I had a somewhat different reaction to BB getting the Pats HC job. With the carnage and negative press swirling around him, my first reaction was WTF