O/T: Vrabel voted into Patriots HOF

[TheRainMaker]

6/21 was the offer... 6/36 from the jets, at the time, was an outsized contract...

Worth it? Sure, Yeah, he's a HoF RB... Made a lot of money, but in the end, never won anything... He could have been a HoF back with three rings by the time his career ended... Its a shame he left, but in the end our team evolved into a dynasty... Who knows what would have happened if he stayed... We coulda missed the Brady his...

Hall of Famer Martin changed two franchises

Curtis Martin did what great players are supposed to -- make everyone better.

www.espn.com

"Martin would have been content to spend the rest of his career with the Patriots, but his contract expired after the 1997 season and he rejected their six-year, $21 million offer. Even so, they never thought he'd leave. They had the right to match any offer, and besides, who'd be crazy enough to surrender two premium picks?

Why Did Curtis Martin Leave Patriots For Jets? Robert Kraft, Bill Parcells Explain - NESN.com

The New England Patriots might never have had a running back more talented than Curtis Martin. They certainly never had one who was more productive. Despite playing just three seasons in New England, from 1995 to 1997, Martin remains the franchise’s fourth-leading rusher. He was responsible for...

nesn.com

Was this a goof:

"When Martin hit free agency for the first time following the 1997 season, New England offered him a six-year, $12 million contract."

"For Martin, who helped lead the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in his first season with the team, the decision between $12 million and $36 million was a no-brainer. If the Patriots had offered him a more lucrative deal from the start, who knows how the rest of his career would have played out?

Also:

"I remember just a year before, Drew Bledsoe had signed a contract for six years, $42 million,” Martin said in the documentary. “And his signing bonus was $12 million. I just felt like I was worth more than Drew Bledsoe’s signing bonus.”

 

[Pape]

Hall of Famer Martin changed two franchises

Curtis Martin did what great players are supposed to -- make everyone better.

www.espn.com

"Martin would have been content to spend the rest of his career with the Patriots, but his contract expired after the 1997 season and he rejected their six-year, $21 million offer. Even so, they never thought he'd leave. They had the right to match any offer, and besides, who'd be crazy enough to surrender two premium picks?

Why Did Curtis Martin Leave Patriots For Jets? Robert Kraft, Bill Parcells Explain - NESN.com

The New England Patriots might never have had a running back more talented than Curtis Martin. They certainly never had one who was more productive. Despite playing just three seasons in New England, from 1995 to 1997, Martin remains the franchise’s fourth-leading rusher. He was responsible for...

nesn.com

Was this a goof:

"When Martin hit free agency for the first time following the 1997 season, New England offered him a six-year, $12 million contract."

"For Martin, who helped lead the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in his first season with the team, the decision between $12 million and $36 million was a no-brainer. If the Patriots had offered him a more lucrative deal from the start, who knows how the rest of his career would have played out?

Also:

"I remember just a year before, Drew Bledsoe had signed a contract for six years, $42 million,” Martin said in the documentary. “And his signing bonus was $12 million. I just felt like I was worth more than Drew Bledsoe’s signing bonus.”

i thought it was 6/21... but i cant say for sure...

drew was making only 6m a year at that point...

 

[yukon cornelius]

Please prove the bold? And again it's more than just what he did here as a coach. Although he is in the NFL hall of fame as coach, which carries more weight then not being in the patriots hall of fame, also makes it even more weird that he is not in the patriots hall of fame. Also not only the patriots franchise, but the jets and the cowboys all had success under Parcells, Also didn't do too bad of a GM job for with the fins.

Again if you go back to that 01 roster you would see players Parcells drafted and coached. There is no way around that.

Bob Kraft saved the franchise by keeping it Foxboro but nobody was coming to the stadium until Parcells and him drafting Drew Bledsoe came onto the scene. Those are straight facts and a big reason why he should be in the hall of fame at patriots place.

6,000 season tickets were sold the day after the Kraft deal was finalized lol

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

6,000 season tickets were sold the day after the Kraft deal was finalized lol

Yeah why buy tickets for a team moving

 

[captain stone]

Beats the bejeezus belt outta the other two at least. But as Dingleberry & RobertWeathers have correctly noted, Julius Adams should be Already In (as should Russ Francis, Mosi Tatupu & Pete Brock IMO).

Speaking of deserving vets, isn't this one of the years that the Senior Committee gets to vote in somebody? Last one was 2019 (Leon Gray IIRC)... 2015 before that..

 

[sportnik]

Anyone born before 1980 & knew what the Sullivan eta Patriots looked like, knows the Patriot “franchise” started the day Parcells was hired. Greatest motivator in NFL history.

 

[dtbrks]

Love the player when he was here
Hate the coach of TN.

 

[NormZauchin]

Anyone born before 1980 & knew what the Sullivan eta Patriots looked like, knows the Patriot “franchise” started the day Parcells was hired. Greatest motivator in NFL history.

Some of us born before 1960 feel that way the day Chuck Fairbanks was hired.

 

[yukon cornelius]

Yeah why buy tickets for a team moving

just countering the "no one was coming until Parcells got here" false narrative

 

[yukon cornelius]

Some of us born before 1960 feel that way the day Chuck Fairbanks was hired.

hahaha no......that would be Vince Lombardi

 

[Steve102]

6,000 season tickets were sold the day after the Kraft deal was finalized lol

We were one of the 6000.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Some of us born before 1960 feel that way the day Chuck Fairbanks was hired.

That is a fact.

The Fairbanks hiring made the Patriots very competitive in the modern, post-merger, Super Bowl era. Period. Belichick even references today his influences on the franchise and the game.

Every member of the 1976 Patriots should be considered as wearing at least one Super Bowl ring as a Patriot. There has never been anything as absurd and unjust in the history of American football as what happened.

The relatively very brief period of losing which coincided with ownership collapse would not have been nearly as bad if Kiam simply kept Flutie.

But the Parcells hiring is undeniably one of the most important events in franchise history.

 

[captain stone]

The team was prepared. Coaching was a major reason why that team got as far as they did. Green Bay was the better team. Our ****ing quarterback had 4 INTs. Their quarterback had 0 turnovers. That's why we lost the game. Not because Parcells was doing his own thing in with his free time.

To be fair, the fact Max Lane was 1 on 1 with Reggie White had something to do with that. That's a coaching failure. As was going away from Curtis Martin who was gashing them in the 3rd quarter to inexplicably let Bledsoe sling it with a compromised OL - see first sentence. As was kicking to Desmond Howard again after he almost did early in the game what we all know he did later.

Not having Troy Brown & Sam Gash available for STs coverage really, Really hurt also.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

Yet again, we have to hear about how great Parcells was. Yes, he was. I would not deny he was a great coach and definitely helped put this team on the map.

But this is a PATRIOTS Hall of Fame, not a football one. How he acted towards the PATRIOTS matters. In the run up to only the second appearance in the title game at that point, what was Parcells doing? Where was his focus? It wasn't in New England. If he had left this team after doing everything he could to win that game? Perfect, no problem, first ballot Patriot HOFer, even if he goes to coach the Jets in that offseason.

But he didn't. He selfishly decided to negotiate his exit while the team was preparing for a Super Bowl. THAT is why he is not a PATRIOTS Hall of Famer.

 

[Zuma]

Love Vrabel, but no way he was a better player than Mankins, who NFL HOF worthy.

Damn straight! We don’t win important games without Vrable but Mankins was on a different level…regardless of lack of trophies.

 

[State]

Vrabel’s performance in the AFC championship game in Pittsburgh the year we won our first superbowl against his former team is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Dude was a possessed madmen who brought Thor-like intensity.

 

[Joker]

Anyone born before 1980 & knew what the Sullivan eta Patriots looked like, knows the Patriot “franchise” started the day Parcells was hired. Greatest motivator in NFL history.

what kind of ****nuts pink hat Pats fan post is THIS??????? Do yourself a favor, asshat...look up BEN DREITH and take a gander at the 1975 Patriots...krist

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Yet again, we have to hear about how great Parcells was. Yes, he was. I would not deny he was a great coach and definitely helped put this team on the map.

But this is a PATRIOTS Hall of Fame, not a football one. How he acted towards the PATRIOTS matters. In the run up to only the second appearance in the title game at that point, what was Parcells doing? Where was his focus? It wasn't in New England. If he had left this team after doing everything he could to win that game? Perfect, no problem, first ballot Patriot HOFer, even if he goes to coach the Jets in that offseason.

But he didn't. He selfishly decided to negotiate his exit while the team was preparing for a Super Bowl. THAT is why he is not a PATRIOTS Hall of Famer.

What Fairbanks did is arguably worse.

But no matter how he appears to have shot his way out of town, Fairbanks has to be in.

Without Chuck, media's false laughingstock narrative could have been real.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

what kind of ****nuts pink hat Pats fan post is THIS??????? Do yourself a favor, asshat...look up BEN DREITH and take a gander at the 1975 Patriots...krist

Plus the AFL Pats were right there near the top half the decade.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Anyone born before 1980 & knew what the Sullivan eta Patriots looked like, knows the Patriot “franchise” started the day Parcells was hired. Greatest motivator in NFL history.

It's true that the Parcells coaching effect on players and their performance is a phenomenon, and shaped a large part of Belichick's approach.

It's unique in terms of the method for success - not star-driven.