Bill Parcells hasn’t had much luck in recent years when it’s come to seeing himself added to the New England Patriots Hall of Fame, but owner Robert Kraft announced on Tuesday that will soon change.
Parcells, who has been on the ballot but hadn’t yet been inducted, will finally be honored this year thanks to Kraft apparently making the call to get him added.
The Patriots owner said on Tuesday that he was aware of the upcoming meeting on Thursday where potential candidates would be discussed, but he went ahead and made the decision.
“Well, people probably get mad at me for what I’m about to do. But I know Thursday, we have a meeting of our Patriots Hall of Fame group,” explained Kraft. “And I decided the end of last week to make a call to… I called Bill Parcells, and I asked him if he would be kind enough to accept going into our Patriot Hall of Fame.”
Having joked earlier when the topic of his age came up, Kraft kidded that, “I think I’m 35” and added that Parcells was also in his “late 30s.” As a result, given where the two are, he wanted to make this happen while the two were still alive and able to enjoy it.
“He had been a finalist for five years,” said Kraft. “Going back to your question, while both of us are alive in our late ’30s, I thought it would be great, given what he’s done for the team, if he would accept entry as a contributor into the Patriots Hall of Fame, and he accepted.”
Putting Kraft, Parcells Split in the Rearview
Parcells joined the club in 1993 and was with the team when Kraft purchased the club in 1994. Just two years later in 1996, the Patriots found themselves in the Super Bowl after Parcells led them to an 11-5 finish while earning a first-round postseason bye.
The ended up club hosting two home playoff games, winning the divisional round match-up and stunning the Pittsburgh Steelers, followed by the Jaguars pulling off an upset in Denver that left the league having to scramble for hotel rooms after not expecting Jacksonville or the Patriots to be among the final teams left standing in the AFC Championship Game.
Unfortunately, after the club had taken receiver Terry Glenn in the draft the previous April, overruling Parcells’ preference for defensive end Tony Brackens with that 7th overall selection, their relationship was fractured.
That led to Parcells’ famous quote that late January, “They want you to cook the dinner. At least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”
It wasn’t long after that news came out that Parcells had decided he wanted out of New England. The Patriots went on to lose the Super Bowl to Brett Favre and the Packers, and Parcells ultimately departed to the Jets the following year, with Pete Carroll taking over the team.
To this day, many fans are still disappointed with how things played out, wondering if a 100%-focused Parcells might have led the club to a victory that February.
For now, what’s done is done and it’s still hard not to appreciate what Parcells did as the Patriots became relevant again as a franchise. In the meantime, it sounds like Parcells, who is now 83, will at least see himself enshrined by the team he put back on the map, and it’s definitely good news.
“I’m excited we’ll have him at our Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremonies,” said Kraft. “And I’m sorry if I messed up the Thursday meeting of the people.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
Parcells win/loss record in NE was not great. It was mediocre. But that’s a flawed way to evaluate what he did. Parcells took a dumpster-fire of a team and methodically upgraded the talent over his 4 years, rendering a super bowl class team. Parcells did the same with the Jets and NYG. He seemed to have an eye for roster building. Some of his players ended up key for BB years later in BB inheriting Ty Law, Bruschi, Ted Johnson, McGinest and more. Bledsoe. That’s what he did here is flip bad to good, and Parcels did it in about… Read more »