Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers Page A

very good, but I probably went overboard in cutting down his influence over personnel to the point where I didn’t give him a fair chance,” Kraft said.
    The scars had healed from Parcells, and Kraft felt the time was right to bring Belichick back to New England. Even though Belichick came off looking like a stooge when he ran interference for Parcells in the 1997 scam by taking the head coaching job as a way to get Parcells to New York, it wasn’t something Kraft held against him. He remembered how as Belichick was leaving the Patriots, he not only spoke to him about the personnel on the team but how thorough he was in his presentation. That was his guy, and it was the right time.
    It was also the start of another chapter in what had become known in the New York tabloids as the Border War between the Patriots and Jets. Parcells’s move to the Jets got it started. Then in 1998, Parcells had his salary cap specialist Mike Tannenbaum construct a six-year $36 million offer sheet filled with poison pills to Patriots restricted free agent running back Curtis Martin, who Parcells drafted in the third round in 1995. Kraft didn’t match the offer and received first- and third-round draft picks as compensation. Advantage: Parcells. Martin played eight years for the Jets and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
    The Jets went to the AFC championship game in 1998, and Parcells was loading up for a Super Bowl run in 1999 amid speculation that his third year back in New York would be his final year coaching the Jets. In the second quarter of the season opener against the Patriots, the Jets’ season ended when quarterback Vinny Testaverde tore his Achilles chasing after a fumble by Martin and was lost for the year. Parcells lost interest for weeks, and the Jets stumbled. Not until he switched at quarterback from Rick Mirer, the player he passed over in 1993 to select Bledsoe, to Ray Lucas halfway through the season, did Parcells seem to have the old fire. Lucas went 6–3 and helped the Jets rally to finish 8–8. But it didn’t prevent Parcells from quitting as the Jets coach within minutes of their season-ending victory over Seattle.
    There was a reason he acted so quickly: there was a clause inBelichick’s contract that automatically elevated him to Jets head coach the moment Parcells stepped down. Hess had even given him a $1 million bonus the previous year to entice him to remain and turn down opportunities to interview for head coaching jobs. Belichick had met with Al Davis for the Raiders job that went to Jon Gruden in 1998. The bonus was intended to make it attractive for him to wait out Parcells.
    The Jets knew Kraft wanted Belichick, and as soon as the season was over, Kraft faxed in the request to interview him. By that time, the Jets had activated the clause in Belichick’s contract, and he was their head coach with three years remaining on his contract. The Jets denied Kraft permission. “We put in a request to talk to him, and I think as soon as we put in the request, Parcells resigned,” Kraft said. “He didn’t preempt me. We had it in. Parcells didn’t want to coach without Belichick. I’m not looking to beat up Bill, but he didn’t want to lose him.”
    What the Jets didn’t know right away was that Belichick desperately wanted the Patriots job. On the day after the season ended, Belichick, now the Jets head coach, turned down media requests after Parcells’s official announcement. The Jets said it was because Belichick wanted it to be Parcells’s day. Parcells promised he would never coach again and encouraged reporters to write it on their chalkboard. Of course, with Parcells, it was always wise to keep an eraser handy. The next day, the Jets called a press conference to introduce Belichick as their new head coach.
    The auditorium where the Jets held their team meetings on the second floor of Weeb Ewbank Hall was filled. This was to be Belichick’s coronation. Despite his failures in