I guess that explains why Belichick had to fairly clean house to change the culture of entitlement here on arrival, not to mention dig out of a cap mess :rolleyes....
The only things of lasting significance Parcells did for this franchise were take BB back as his DC after he got dumped by Cleveland and teach Kraft what he didn't want to work with in a HC/GM. Tuna didn't shop for the groceries, yet he gets mediot and fan credit for those Greer picks that worked out while the ones that didn't represented his ticket out of town, he didn't respect the role of ownership, he took a HOF RB with him when he left this team in potential shambles after engineering a sleazy backdoor exit out of town in the midst of a trip to the Superbowl, and for good measure he tried to trap Belichick in the Meadowlands to stick it to NE.
Kraft floundered a bit in the aftermath of that ugly exit, but he somehow had the sense recognize that and follow his nagging gut instinct that said this Belichick fellow he used to sit and talk football with when Tuna wouldn't was not only potentially the real deal, he was passionate without being egotistical and he had the courage of his convictions and a vision of a system encompassing what a winning football team and organization should be and he was a perfect fit for their organizational model. Kraft took a lot of heat for what transpired between the time Tuna left and the night we won Superbowl XXXVI, including being lambasted for trading for a failed former HC to be his 3rd HC in 4 seasons.
Then Belichick floundered a bit in the aftermath of his own hire as he struggled to clean up Tuna's mess that had eventually floundered after 3 years under an interim a feel good HC. But he somehow had the incredible good sense just months after arriving to follow a hunch backed up by his QB coach and draft the QB from Michigan to groom behind a face of the franchise QB he had all too easily exposed in the interim. Fate landed that kid on the field probably a season before Belichick could or would have ever been able to (and survived the media storm both that benching and continued suckitude would have ignited), and the kid fortunately not only didn't flounder - he flourished, and made them all look like geniuses in hindsight in just his first year as a starter and Belichick's second year as HC and Kraft's 8th season as an NFL owner .
Having good individual teams or stretches and being a poorly run and at times embarassing franchise are not mutually exclusive. Sullivan did the best he could with limited resources or vision. Kiam did nothing but use the team to sell razors - but at least he sold to Orthwein. Orthwein played the bad cop but in the end he sold to a prince - after kickstarting a marketing transition designed primarily to make his asset more marketable by hiring THE biggest name in coaching at the time.
Kraft is the one who pulled it all together, what each of them had contributed along the way retaining the past as history, succeeding in the present in less than a decade and creating a model franchise that should be competitive for the forseeable future. He gets the owner nod. Belichick is the best HC in the NFL let alone the greatest to ever coach here, and Brady is going to the freakin' HOF with them. Any and everyone else can stand in line for honorable mention.
