Today In Patriots History Feb 9, 1981: **** Steinberg hired as Director of Player Development

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Today in Patriots History
**** Steinberg​

February 9, 1981:
**** Steinberg is hired to be the Director of Player Development


From the 1981 Patriots Media Guide:

Regarded as one of the NFL's top talent hunters, **** Steinberg rejoined the Patriots' organization when he was named Director of Player Development on February 9, 1981. In his new capacity, he is responsible for directing the Patriots' overall scouting operation and use of the Patriots' computer system in the accumulation and management of scouting data.​

Steinberg rejoined the Patriots after departing his position as a Patriots scout to become Director of College Scouting for the Los Angeles Rams in June, 1976. he remained in that post until being promoted to the position of Director of Player Personnel, a post he held until June, 1980.​

After his four year stay with the Rams, Steinberg joined then General Manager Steve Rosenbloom as Vice President of Player Personnel with the New Orleans Saints. Steinberg later resigned that post on January 20, 1981 before rejoining the Patriots.​

A native of Philadelphia, Steinberg played football and majored in physical education and health at Temple University. In addition to serving a two year tour of duty with the U.S. Army in France, Steinberg served as a high school coach at Philadelphia's Roman Catholic High (1960-61) and at Stauntan (VA) Military Academy (1961-64). He then entered the collegiate ranks as an assistant at Vanderbilt (1964-67) and Kansas State (1967-69).​

Following a brief stint as a scout with the Cowboys in 1969, Steinberg spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Southern Mississippi (1970-72) before joining the Patriots as a scout under then Director of Player Personnel Bucko Kilroy (who was also a scout with Dallas when Steinberg was there). Steinberg served with the Patriots from 1972 to 1976 before departing for the Rams.​

The Patriots were respectable in 1988 (missing the playoffs by only a game), but then the 1989 season was a disaster. Three of the best players on defense (Andre Tippett, Garin Veris and Ronnie Lippett) were injured in the same preseason game. None of the combination of Tony Eason, Doug Flutie, nor Steve Grogan emerged as the primary starting quarterback, each rotating in and out as the starter throughout the season. Eason was later traded during the season, leaving Flutie and Grogan to battle for the job. The Patriots finished the season 5–11.

Soon after Flutie left for the CFL, and Steinberg bolted to take a similar job with the Jets. Berry was fired and replaced by Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Rod Rust for 1990 - and everything got much worse in 1991.


Sept 5, 1984:

AFC EAST

This was traditionally one of the most ferociously competitive divisions in football, but now it's a two-tiered society. The Bills, the Jets and Colts are the

vault.si.com

The Steinberg cycle. **** Steinberg was a scout for the Patriots in the Chuck Fairbanks era, when New England went from nowhere to the playoffs as Steinberg came up with a heavy load of talent. Then he moved to the Rams as director of college scouting, and three years later they were in the Super Bowl. He has been back with the Patriots as chief scout for three years now, and the talent influx is ready to take hold. They have players—lots of them.​

Dec 19, 1989:
Patriots and Jets battling each other over contracts - imagine that.

Jets Hire Dick Steinberg as GM; Patriots Threaten Legal Action

**** Steinberg, former director of player personnel for the Rams who later helped build the New England Patriots into a Super Bowl team, was hired as general manager of the New York Jets Monday amid threats of legal action by the Patriots.

www.latimes.com

**** Steinberg, former director of player personnel for the Rams who later helped build the New England Patriots into a Super Bowl team, was hired as general manager of the New York Jets Monday amid threats of legal action by the Patriots.​

Steinberg, 54, accepted a contract estimated at five years for nearly $3.25 million to become the Jets’ first general manager in 15 years.​

Patriot General Manager Pat Sullivan, interviewed on WBZ-TV in Boston, said director of college scouting Joe Mendez was appointed to replace Steinberg and that the team was going to take legal action over the way the Steinberg matter was conducted.​

Sullivan said the Patriots would seek compensation of some kind, maybe in a trade or monetary form. “We basically felt there are provisions in this contract . . . that were violated,” Sullivan said.​

The Jets are 4-11, their worst record in seven seasons under Coach Joe Walton.​

Although Steinberg’s role with the Patriots had not changed under new owner Victor Kiam, he did not have the power there he will have with the Jets.​

Steinberg, the director of player development for the Patriots, has disagreed with Kiam, General Manager Patrick Sullivan and Coach Raymond Berry on some recent personnel moves, including the waiving of quarterback Tony Eason, who started for the Jets Sunday.​

Sept 25, 1996 obituary:
**** Steinberg - Staunton Military Academy Hall of Fame

“In Steinberg's tenure with the Jets, the team made one playoff appearance -- in 1991, after finishing 8-8 -- and one noteworthy trade, acquiring quarterback Boomer Esiason in 1993. But the frustrations outweighed the successes.​

“The man Steinberg hired as head coach in 1994, Pete Carroll, was dismissed after last season by the owner, Leon Hess, and replaced by Rich Kotite with no apparent input by Steinberg. Running back Blair Thomas, an all-American from Penn State, never met expectations as a first-round draft pick, and the jury is still out on other high picks like Johnny Mitchell, Marvin Jones and Aaron Glenn.​

“Among the players Steinberg signed as free agents, Ronnie Lott, Leonard Marshall and Art Monk are gone. [As of 1995] only 14 of his draft choices since 1990 are still with the team, seven of them as starters.​

“With the Rams and Patriots, however, Steinberg built teams that reached the Super Bowl. In the 1977 draft -- his first as director of scouting for the Rams -- Steinberg drafted Bob Brudzinski, Nolan Cromwell, Wendell Tyler and Vince Ferragamo, all stars on the team that reached the 1980 Super Bowl. During nine seasons as director of player personnel with New England, which went to the 1986 Super Bowl, he acquired Pro Bowl players like Andre Tippet, Brian Holloway, Tony Collins, Irving Fryar and Fred Marion.​

Another curse of being a Jet:

Jets' star-crossed draft history a bad omen as No. 3 pick draws near

The Jets select within the first three picks of the draft for the fifth time since 1967 and they've very seldom found unmitigated success.

www.espn.com

This was January, 1990. **** Steinberg, just hired to resurrect the New York Jets, was in Mobile, Alabama, to scout the Senior Bowl. He owned the No. 2 pick in the draft, and he had just watched his targeted player -- running back Blair Thomas -- win MVP honors with a brilliant performance.​

"Even my grandmother could tell you he was the best player on the field," the new general manager told me in the press box that day.​

Grandma wouldn't have made it as a draftnik.​

Thomas never came close to reaching expectations, and three players picked after him in the first round -- Cortez Kennedy, Junior Seau and Emmitt Smith -- went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.​

Some more Pats history/trivia.
Why would you draft a player in the 4th round with the intention of moving him to another position - without ever speaking to him first?

Rich Gannon shares incredible story behind why Patriots traded him

Why did the Patriots trade Rich Gannon just six days after drafting him? The former NFL MVP shares his side of the wild story.

www.nbcsportsboston.com

"I went to the (NFL) Combine in 1987 and I worked out for a number of teams. The one team I didn't work out for was the Patriots," (Rich) Gannon said.​

"And of course, the night of the draft, I get a call from **** Steinberg, who's the general manager at the time, and Raymond Berry, the head coach of the Patriots, said, 'Hey, congratulations. We're excited to draft you in the fourth round, and we just want to find the best position for you.'​

"I'm sitting there on the phone and I went (drops phone), 'Wait, what? Are you serious? I'm a quarterback! I'm not a defensive back! I'm not a running back!'"​

Gannon was so put off by the Patriots suggesting they'd like him to play another position in New England that he spoke to his agent and requested a trade. The rest, as they say, is history.​

"I thought to myself, 'There's no way I'm gonna go to training camp and try to learn a different position and not make the team and be one of those guys who's the last cut, then come back the next year and (be) the last cut,'" Gannon said. "I'm like, 'You know what, forget that.'​

"So, I talked to my agent and said, 'I'm not gonna go (to New England).' Six days later, they traded me to the Minnesota Vikings."​

Looking back nearly 40 years later, it seems baffling why the Patriots would want Gannon to play another position. New England entered the 1987 season with a 34-year-old Steve Grogan and Tony Eason atop its QB depth chart and would go through a handful of quarterbacks over the next six seasons before finally landing Drew Bledsoe in 1993.​

 

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Today in Patriots History
Logan Ryan​

Happy 34th birthday to Logan Ryan
Born February 9, 1991 in Berlin, New Jersey
Patriot CB, 2013-2016; uniform #26
Pats 3rd round (83rd overall) selection of the 2013 draft, from Rutgers

Logan Ryan never missed a game while with the Patriots, appearing in 64 games with 40 starts. In the regular season he had 13 interceptions, including a 79 yard pick-six off Geno Smith.

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During his time in Foxborough the corner made 259 tackles (202 solo) with 2½ sacks, four forced fumbles, five tackles for a loss and six quarterback hits.

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Logan Ryan also appeared in ten playoff games for New England, with the Patriots going 8-2 in those contests. He earned two rings, for Super Bowl victories over Seattle and Atlanta. Logan was on the field for 976 defensive snaps in 2015 (89%) and 897 in 2016 (86%), and for all but one defensive snap in the five 2016 and 2017 postseason games. Ryan’s fourth quarter interception against Houston that he ran back to the six yard line – just after the Texans had scored – set up the game clinching touchdown run by Dion Lewis.

Tennessee lured Ryan away in 2017 with a three year, $30 million contract. That was a nice payday for Logan, and he got himself a nice second free agent deal in 2020: a three year, $31 million contract with the Giants that included a $6 million signing bonus, $20 million guaranteed, and an average annual salary of over $10 million. Good for him.




Happy 54th birthday to Pat O’Neill
Born February 9, 1971 at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
Patriot punter and kicker, 1994-1995; uniform #5
Pats 5th round (135th overall) selection of the 1994 draft, from Syracuse

Doctor Patrick O’Neill handled kickoffs and punts with the Patriots for a year and a half. He could have gone on to have a much longer NFL career, but decided instead to put his brain power to use for a better purpose.

The Big, Slow Guy Wins the Race for the Football | New York Times

PRO FOOTBALL; The Big, Slow Guy Wins the Race for the Football (Published 1994)

www.nytimes.com

Late in the third quarter, with the Jets leading, 13-10, the Patriots faced fourth down and 7 yards to go from New York’s 31-yard line. It seemed time for a 49-yard field goal attempt but the Patriots’ kicker, Matt Bahr, while making 23 of 28 this year, had not kicked one beyond 48 yards.​

The Patriots sent out their field-goal team – but with Pat O’Neill, the punter and long-distance field-goal kicker, rather than Bahr. Everyone expected a field-goal attempt – everyone except Scott Zolak, the holder. On the sideline, he was told to call the fake.​

The Jets lined up for a field goal, but Zolak called the signal that said it would be a fake. Zolak put his hands out to take the supposed snap. Instead, it went directly to O’Neill, who kicked a soft punt instead.​

The ball landed on the 10-yard line and bounced toward the end zone. A team expecting a punt would have had someone back there to block anyone trying to down the ball short of the end zone. But the Jets were expecting a field-goal attempt and had no one stationed deep. Todd Rucci, the 291-pound guard for the Patriots, had clear sailing past Ronnie Lott. He downed the football on the 1, and the Jets had their backs to the goal.​

Three plays later on third-and-6, Boomer Esiason passed for Ryan Yarborough. Ricky Reynolds intercepted and ran 11 yards for a touchdown – and the Patriots led, 17-13.​

NFL punter becomes a surgeon | Sarasota Herald

A greater love than the NFL

He found that he wasn't in love with football

www.heraldtribune.com

The trick play sparked the Patriots to their fourth straight win after a miserable start. They kept it up through their last game, tying Miami’s record at 10-6 and winning a wild-card playoff berth.​

The Patriots drew the Cleveland Browns in the first round, and O’Neill pulled off another trick play, throwing a pass for a first down. Percentage-wise, he had a better day than quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who threw three interceptions in a 20-13 loss.​

That first year he averaged 41 yards per punt, good for playing half his games at open, wind-swept Foxboro. It placed him 10th in the 14-team league, but less than a yard off the average punter. He also hit the fourth-longest punt of any kicker that year.​

The numbers, though, masked a challenging season. Punting looks simple on television, but November brings cold and trials invisible to the cameras.​

“The ball’s a piece of stone, the wind blows, you have no footing because the grass won’t grow and the field doesn’t absorb moisture,” he said.​

In the end, despite the highlight-reel moments, despite the trip to the playoffs, it was disappointing.​

“There were games where I was as good as anyone I’d seen. Then there were games I didn’t do well,” he said recently, at the end of a day of seeing patients. “At some point, I said, ‘I like this, but is it worth it?’”​

So that off-season, while his teammates rested, he tackled something in some ways more arduous than training camp: He took the MCAT, the medical school admission test.​

Dr. Patrick J. O’Neill | Patrick J. O’Neill, MD

Dr. Patrick J. O'Neill | Patrick J. O'Neill, MD

Patrick J. O'Neill, MD, is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland and was fellowship trained in Foot and Ankle at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.

www.sarasotafootandankle.com

Dr. O’Neill is highly trained in the latest non-surgical and surgical treatments for a wide range of disorders of the foot and ankle. He treats sports-related injuries, tendon disorders, foot and ankle trauma, diabetes, nerve disorders, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, heel pain, bunions, hammer toes, and amputations. Any area of the foot and ankle may be involved, including the forefoot, midfoot, hindfoot, or ankle. Patients may have either simple common problems, or more complex problems which could require complicated reconstructive procedures.​

While at Syracuse University, Dr. O’Neill excelled both on and off the playing field. Some of his academic accomplishments include Academic All-American and University Scholar, Syracuse’s highest honor. Dr. O’Neill was also a member of the Syracuse Orangemen football team as a Punter and Kicker, and was ultimately named to the All-20th Century Football Team. Upon leaving Syracuse, Dr. O’Neill was drafted in the 5th round of the NFL draft by the New England Patriots, and in his first year he was named the NFL All-rookie Punter.​

Happy 50th birthday to Terry Billups
Born February 9, 1975 in Wiesbaden, Germany
Patriot CB, 1999; uniform #23

Terry Billups went undrafted out of North Carolina, and spent time with Dallas in 1998. In ’99 he played for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe, and also saw action in two games for the Patriots. With four tackles in one game against Baltimore he is okay in my book.

Billups is another player who has had a nice professional post-NFL career. He was a federal law clerk in Illinois, then an attorney in Cleveland from 2006 to 2014. He then worked as general counsel at Ursuline College for over five years, and opened his own law firm in 2019.




Other pro football players born on this date with New England connections:

Dan Ross would have been 68 today
Born Feb 9, 1957 in Malden
Went to Everett High School and Northeastern

Ex-Bengal Ross, Super Bowl record holder, dies at 49 | espn

Ex-Bengal Ross, Super Bowl record holder, dies at 49

Former standout tight end Dan Ross, who spent most of his seven NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and still shares the record for most receptions in a Super Bowl, died Tuesday at age 49.

www.espn.com

Ross was the Bengals’ second-round choice in the 1979 draft, the 30th player selected overall that year. He earned a starting berth as a rookie and notched 41 catches for 516 yards and one touchdown. In his first five seasons with the Bengals, Ross posted more than 40 receptions every year, and he averaged 51.4 catches and 628.2 yards and scored 16 touchdowns.​

His best season was in 1981, when Ross had 71 receptions for 910 yards and five touchdowns. Following that season, in a Super Bowl XVI loss to the San Francisco 49ers, he had 11 catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns. The 11 receptions remain a Super Bowl record shared by Jerry Rice of the 49ers and Deion Branch of the New England Patriots.​

Ross left the Bengals following the 1983 season to sign with the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL. He returned to Cincinnati in 1985 and split that season between the Bengals and Seattle Seahawks. His final season in the NFL was in 1986 with the Green Bay Packers.​

In 104 regular-season games, Ross had 290 receptions for 3,419 yards and 19 touchdowns. He appeared in the 1983 Pro Bowl game.​

Dom Principe
Born Feb 9, 1917 in Brockton
Sandwiched around his time in the war, the Brockton High School alum was a fullback for the NFL’s New York Giants and AAFC Brooklyn Dodgers.


Tommy Myers
Born Feb 9, 1901 in New Britain CT
The Fordham Flash was a blocking back for a couple seasons in the twenties.


**** King
Born February 9, 1895 in Boston
Richard Stewart Cutter King went to Boston Latin High School and Harvard University. He was a coach and roadshow star fullback-wingback-tailback before the NFL was the NFL, when semi-pro teams toured middle america. In the NFL’s infancy King played for teams like the Hammond Pros, Milwaukee Badgers, Rochester Jeffersons and St. Louis All-Stars. King was an anomaly, a married Harvard student working his way through college to pay for the two children he had by the age of twenty. He later made headlines marrying a twice-divorced woman, then died a mysterious death at the age of 35 in Bogata, Columbia.





Feb 9, 2004:

As The Ball Bounces: Super Patriotic Tidbits

The Patriots are World Champions. Even die-hahd Red Sox fans have to be thrilled to death.

www.patsfans.com