A ‘trade’ is not my recollection of how that all went down.
The below is how I recall it.
Everything about Bill Belichick's sudden, earth-shattering resignation from the New York Jets 20 years ago this Saturday was already bizarre enough. Belichick had twice been named head coach of the Jets without having ever coached a game. But now an overcoat and a briefcase - some genuine...
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Now you HC me: 20 years ago, Belichick resigned after 1 day as Jets head coach
Dom Cosentino
25d ago
Al Pereira / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Everything about Bill Belichick's sudden, earth-shattering resignation from the New York Jets 20 years ago this Saturday was already bizarre enough. Belichick had twice been named head coach of the Jets without having ever coached a game. But now an overcoat and a briefcase - some genuine cloak-and-dagger intrigue - can be added to the mix, too.
The general outline of events has been told repeatedly in the ensuing decades: On Jan. 4, 2000, at a press conference at the Jets' then-headquarters in Hempstead, New York, Belichick was scheduled to be introduced as head coach. Instead, minutes before taking the podium, Belichick handed team president Steve Gutman a handwritten note that stated his intention to "resign as HC of the NYJ." He'd been on the job for one day, three years after having had the same gig for just six days.
Belichick appeared before the assembled press anyway, stunning the world by breaking the news himself with a meandering explanation of his about-face. A video of the proceedings is
still available on YouTube (for now, anyway).
The exact circumstances that precipitated Belichick's decision have always been somewhat mysterious. It's known that he wanted to escape the hulking shadow of his mentor, Bill Parcells, whose resignation from the Jets two days earlier contractually obligated Belichick to take over. It's also known that the uncertainty of the Jets' ownership structure influenced his thinking - at least, a flop-sweating Belichick said so at his presser that afternoon.
But did Belichick already have something lined up with the New England Patriots, who officially hired him a few weeks later? That's where the overcoat and briefcase enter the scene.
In an oral history of that extraordinary day published just this week,
ESPN's Rich Ciminiquotes Frank Ramos, the Jets' PR director at the time. Ramos says he saw Belichick exit the building that morning wearing an overcoat over his Jets warmup gear and carrying a briefcase.
"I told Steve Gutman about it," Ramos told Cimini. "I said, 'This is really unusual. You can't believe what I just saw.' He said, 'Gee, I have no idea what that means.'"
Whatever it might have meant adds a conspiratorial veneer to one of the most surreal-yet-consequential moments in NFL history. What mattered was that Belichick was out. The Jets have spent the years since walking the Penrose stairs, cycling through six coaches and failing to make the playoffs for nine seasons running. And Belichick has tormented them - and the rest of the league - the entire time. His arrival in New England kick-started an unprecedented dynasty that continues to this day.
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Belichick had long been yoked to Parcells. The two began working together as assistants with the New York Giants in 1979. Belichick rose to defensive coordinator during Parcells' third season as head coach, and over their next six years together, the Giants won a pair of Super Bowls.
Belichick struck out on his own as head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1991. He lasted five seasons, making the playoffs once. Owner Art Modell fired him after Modell decided to move the franchise to Baltimore. By then, Parcells was the head coach in New England. In '96, he brought Belichick back into the fold as his assistant head coach/defensive backs coach.
The Patriots reached the Super Bowl that year and lost to the Packers. But during the week of the game, word leaked that Parcells wanted out. Parcells felt that owner Robert Kraft, who purchased the franchise the year after Parcells was hired, was too intrusive; the two simply weren't able to connect on a personal level.
All the while, Belichick and Kraft began conversing and developing a relationship; Parcells didn't fly back from the Super Bowl with the team, while Belichick sat next to Kraft on the plane. According to Michael Holley's 2004 book, "Patriot Reign," the Patriots claimed to have phone records from the week of the Super Bowl that showed dozens of phone calls from Parcells' hotel room to Hempstead, fueling suspicions he'd been working to secure his next job with the Jets. Parcells later denied this, but he did wind up coaching the Jets the next year - after enlisting Belichick to help him do an end-around on his Patriots contract, which forbade Parcells from coaching anywhere else in 1997.
As Ian O'Connor wrote in his 2018 book, "Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time," Belichick badly wanted to take over for Parcells in New England. But there were issues beyond Belichick's control. Here's O'Connor:
That left Belichick tied to Parcells, for better or worse. Jets president Gutman developed the contract workaround, which called for Belichick to be head coach for a year while Parcells served in an advisory role. Parcells would then coach the Jets for two years before handing the reins back to Belichick. The Jets went so far as to stage a press conference announcing Belichick's hire, and Belichick even began assembling a staff.
Kraft protested, the league got involved, and eventually Parcells was released from his Patriots contract in exchange for a few draft picks - though not the No. 1 overall selection the Jets used to land USC wideout Keyshawn Johnson after Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning chose to stay in school.
Parcells thus took over as Jets head coach and general manager, with Belichick sliding in as assistant head coach/defensive coordinator after spending six days in charge. Kraft hired ex-Jets head coach Pete Carroll instead.
The Jets-Patriots rivalry heated up in March 1998, when Parcells persuaded running back Curtis Martin, whom he'd coached in New England, to join the Jets. Parcells even crafted Martin's deal to include a "poison pill" that essentially prevented the Patriots from matching the offer. The Pats claimed the provision violated the salary cap and were awarded the Jets' first- and third-round picks in 1998 as compensation. The real tug-of-war, however, was yet to come.
The Jets reached the AFC Championship Game in '98 and were considered favorites to compete for a Super Bowl title in 1999 - until quarterback Vinny Testaverde tore his Achilles in the opener. The season went sideways, and even though they won their final four games to finish 8-8, Parcells informed Gutman he was resigning Jan. 2, the day of the finale; the official announcement was made a day later. Belichick's deal called for him to take over, with Parcells assuming a contractually undefined consultant's role. The Pats fired Carroll the next morning.
No one had any reason to suspect the succession plan wouldn't take shape. Not yet.
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While it's not clear when Belichick and the Patriots officially came to terms, the discernible machinations began on the afternoon of Jan. 2. According to Holley's book, Carroll hadn't even given his postgame remarks by the time the Pats had faxed a request to interview Belichick. Parcells, upon receiving it, crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash.
Parcells announced his departure at a press conference on the afternoon of Jan. 3. Belichick did not attend; according to Cimini, Belichick told Ramos he wanted Parcells to "have his day." A few hours later, as Parcells recalled in the book "Parcells: A Football Life," Belichick approached him to ask if it was possible to revisit the Patriots' interview request. An excerpt published in Sports Illustrated in 2014
described how that conversation unfolded:
Parcells also reminded Belichick of the $1-million bonus Hess had given him after the '98 season as an incentive to stay. Still, Belichick couldn't resist Kraft's overtures. Kraft offered Belichick not only a second chance to be a head coach, but also control of the football operation, more money, and the opportunity to work for an owner he knew he could get along with - a situation he'd desperately wanted three years earlier.
Perhaps best of all, the Pats' job presented Belichick the chance to free himself from Parcells. Yes, Parcells had given him a place to land after things didn't work out in Cleveland, but with the Jets, Parcells still would have hovered over Belichick's head, pulling the strings. During a subsequent grievance hearing about Belichick's contract, future Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis - then the Jets' offensive coordinator - let it slip that Parcells did not intend to give Belichick total authority. Parcells fired him the next day.
"Charlie, you need to get your shit and leave the building," Parcells told him,
according to Parcells' book. Belichick would soon hire Weis to coach the offense in New England.
Belichick went about his business on Jan. 3 and the morning of Jan. 4, meeting with staffers throughout the Jets organization. He arrived at the facility at 6 a.m. on Jan. 4 to work out, and he was on the treadmill next to Kevin Williams, a safety who finished the season on injured reserve after a bacterial infection left him in a coma for nearly two weeks. As Williams later told Cimini:
Williams didn't think anything of it until he saw on TV that Belichick had resigned. In Parcells' book, he relates that in a Jan. 4 morning meeting with the coaches, Belichick's hands were shaking. And now we know what Ramos saw: the overcoat and the briefcase.
But no one knew anything about Belichick's plans until he began telling people around the building just before that 2:30 p.m. presser. When he approached Gutman, he handed him a loose-leaf sheet of paper on which he'd handwritten a 62-word resignation letter. That sheet of paper has been lost to posterity, according to Cimini, but the full text was published the next day in the New York Post:
Belichick dropped his bombshell at the start of the presser by basically repeating the first sentence of the letter. He spoke for 25 minutes before taking questions - at one point rambling about how he wanted to spend more time with his family, at another describing the perspective he'd gained from seeing Williams on the treadmill that morning.
"Belichick was using a player's near-death experience as a shield," O'Connor wrote in his book. "It was not his finest hour."
Belichick sidestepped a direct query about the Patriots' opening, which by then was the elephant in the room. A seething Gutman assumed the podium after Belichick and said, bizarrely, "We should have some feelings of sorrow and regret for him and his family. He obviously has some inner turmoil."
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It became clear in the days ahead that Belichick and the Patriots wanted each other. They engaged in a standoff over compensation, with commissioner Paul Tagliabue eventually awarding the Jets the Patriots' 2000 first-round pick. The Jets used that pick on defensive end Shaun Ellis, who would play for them for 11 seasons. The Pats officially hired Belichick on Jan. 27. In the sixth round of that same draft, they selected quarterback Tom Brady.
Woody Johnson was awarded the Jets franchise on Jan. 11, and Parcells tapped linebackers coach Al Groh to be head coach. He went 9-7 and quit after one season. Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan, Todd Bowles, and Adam Gase succeeded him. Combined, they have six playoff appearances, including two trips to the AFC Championship Game, and no postseasons since 2010. In the meantime, Belichick and Brady have guided the Pats to the Super Bowl nine times, winning six. They're back in the playoffs again this year after winning the AFC East for an 11th straight season.
Belichick's taken special pleasure in
sticking it to his former team over the years. At times, he's
avoided even mentioning the Jets by name. In an ESPN 30 for 30 about his relationship with Parcells, recorded at the stadium the Jets and Giants share, he and Parcells scoffed at a request to visit the Jets' locker room (though Parcells later
said it was because they were tired).
Was it always in the cards that Belichick was going to ditch the Jets? Did Parcells know this, and was that the reason he resigned, so as to trigger the arrangement that would elevate Belichick, thus keeping him with the Jets? "I'm not answering that," Parcells told Cimini. The overcoat-and-briefcase anecdote suggests something furtive might have been going on, but the truth remains elusive.
In the end, all that's left to go on is Belichick's final statement from that press conference 20 years ago: "I wanna wish everyone with the Jets my very best. OK? Thank you."
Dom Cosentino is a senior features writer at theScore.
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