Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers
Book: Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers
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Authors: Gary Myers
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toBelichick in his year with the Patriots after Art Modell fired him as the Browns were moving from Cleveland to Baltimore. Belichick had alienated Browns fans with his secretive ways, lack of personality, painful-to-watch news conferences, and his controversial decision to cut popular quarterback Bernie Kosar, who grew up in nearby Boardman, Ohio. Modell knew that to get started on an upbeat note in Baltimore he could not take the morose Belichick with him. Parcells threw Belichick a career-saving lifeline and brought him to New England to help with the defense for what turned out to be a Super Bowl year. Kraft and Belichick became buddies.
“We had our budget full when Belichick got fired,” Kraft said. “Parcells said, ‘Look, this is a guy I think we should have in the system. You talk to him and you see if you agree.’ I liked him from the minute I met him. That’s when I realized I would eventually hire him as a coach.”
Kraft and Myra and Belichick and his wife, Debby, went to dinner after Parcells left, and Kraft explained why he had to make a clean break from the Parcells era. “I probably should have hired him,” Kraft said. “But in the important decisions in life, I go with my instinct. I don’t think Belichick would have been right in ’96. I told him when I didn’t hire him that I thought he had to work on how he handled the media, how he handled things. But the real problem I had with him was he was so tight with Parcells. I thought Parcells had stuck it to us. Belichick wanted to stay with us. He didn’t want to go.”
It shows the depth of Kraft’s enmity for Parcells at that point that he dismissed Belichick, whom he considered a friend, “because I didn’t want anything to do with Parcells,” he said. “Anyone who could live with Parcells for so many years and be under his thumb, I needed someone as a head coach I could trust, and I hired a guy who is the antithesis. As soon as I met Pete, I knew I wanted to hire him.”
Kraft needed to heal, and Carroll was exactly the right medicineto help Kraft get over Parcells. Carroll has an infectious personality, and players liked playing for him.
Parcells was the tough Jersey guy. He had friends in the Boston media. Carroll was California cool, and that didn’t play well in one of the toughest sports towns in America. He used to wear sandals to work, not that there is anything wrong with that; it just didn’t play well in Beantown. “Can you see Bill Parcells coming to a meeting in sandals?” Kraft said. “Pete is one of the truly great guys in the coaching fraternity, and I didn’t give him all the support he needed. Pete was inclusive. Look, in the end, I needed someone to make me feel good. It was good for me to have a guy like Pete Carroll because he’s my kind of guy. I mean, we loved Pete. You want Pete to marry into your family. I love the guy to this day. He’s an awesome guy.”
Kraft just didn’t want him as his head coach anymore. Three years was enough. The team was going backward. Carroll won the AFC East with a 10–6 record in his first year in New England and lost 7–6 to the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the second round of the playoffs after beating Miami in the wild-card game. He made the playoffs his second year but lost in the wild-card game to the Jaguars. The Patriots won just nine games that year, and making things worse, Parcells and the Jets finished 12–4 and won the AFC East for the first time since the division was formed in 1970. New England avoided further embarrassment when the Jets blew a 10–0 second half lead in Denver in the AFC championship game and failed to make the Super Bowl. In 1999, the Patriots started 6–2 and looked like one of the better teams in the NFL, but they went just 2–6 in the second half of the season and missed the playoffs at 8–8. They had gone from eleven victories in Parcells’s final season down to ten, then nine, then eight with Carroll. Kraft fired him.
“Pete was
“We had our budget full when Belichick got fired,” Kraft said. “Parcells said, ‘Look, this is a guy I think we should have in the system. You talk to him and you see if you agree.’ I liked him from the minute I met him. That’s when I realized I would eventually hire him as a coach.”
Kraft and Myra and Belichick and his wife, Debby, went to dinner after Parcells left, and Kraft explained why he had to make a clean break from the Parcells era. “I probably should have hired him,” Kraft said. “But in the important decisions in life, I go with my instinct. I don’t think Belichick would have been right in ’96. I told him when I didn’t hire him that I thought he had to work on how he handled the media, how he handled things. But the real problem I had with him was he was so tight with Parcells. I thought Parcells had stuck it to us. Belichick wanted to stay with us. He didn’t want to go.”
It shows the depth of Kraft’s enmity for Parcells at that point that he dismissed Belichick, whom he considered a friend, “because I didn’t want anything to do with Parcells,” he said. “Anyone who could live with Parcells for so many years and be under his thumb, I needed someone as a head coach I could trust, and I hired a guy who is the antithesis. As soon as I met Pete, I knew I wanted to hire him.”
Kraft needed to heal, and Carroll was exactly the right medicineto help Kraft get over Parcells. Carroll has an infectious personality, and players liked playing for him.
Parcells was the tough Jersey guy. He had friends in the Boston media. Carroll was California cool, and that didn’t play well in one of the toughest sports towns in America. He used to wear sandals to work, not that there is anything wrong with that; it just didn’t play well in Beantown. “Can you see Bill Parcells coming to a meeting in sandals?” Kraft said. “Pete is one of the truly great guys in the coaching fraternity, and I didn’t give him all the support he needed. Pete was inclusive. Look, in the end, I needed someone to make me feel good. It was good for me to have a guy like Pete Carroll because he’s my kind of guy. I mean, we loved Pete. You want Pete to marry into your family. I love the guy to this day. He’s an awesome guy.”
Kraft just didn’t want him as his head coach anymore. Three years was enough. The team was going backward. Carroll won the AFC East with a 10–6 record in his first year in New England and lost 7–6 to the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the second round of the playoffs after beating Miami in the wild-card game. He made the playoffs his second year but lost in the wild-card game to the Jaguars. The Patriots won just nine games that year, and making things worse, Parcells and the Jets finished 12–4 and won the AFC East for the first time since the division was formed in 1970. New England avoided further embarrassment when the Jets blew a 10–0 second half lead in Denver in the AFC championship game and failed to make the Super Bowl. In 1999, the Patriots started 6–2 and looked like one of the better teams in the NFL, but they went just 2–6 in the second half of the season and missed the playoffs at 8–8. They had gone from eleven victories in Parcells’s final season down to ten, then nine, then eight with Carroll. Kraft fired him.
“Pete was
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