Bill Parcells laments decision to part ways with Patriots

Jim Corbett | USA TODAY Sports

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Bill Parcells has one haunting memory from a coaching career that will culminate with his Aug.3 induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: his bitter post-Super Bowl XXXI divorce from the New England Patriots and owner Robert Kraft after the 1996 season.

"I regret leaving New England. Had we done things differently ... " Parcells recently told USA TODAY Sports. "I had a good young team there. I hated to leave that team, because I knew what we could do.

"I was absolutely too headstrong. And he might have been a little headstrong, too. I think both Kraft and myself, retrospectively, would have done things a little differently."

And the course of NFL history would have changed.

Parcells was succeeded in New England in 1997 by Pete Carroll, who coached the Patriots for three seasons before he was replaced by Bill Belichick in 2000.

The Patriots have won three Super Bowls and reached two others under Belichick, who, without the New England job available, might have remained head coach of the New York Jets for more than a day before resigning to move up the road to Foxborough, Mass.

Parcells and Kraft have made their peace, getting over a breakup caused by Parcells' lack of final say on building the roster, which was decided by then-director of player personnel Bobby Grier. That power struggle led Parcells to taunt Kraft with the famous line: "If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."

Kraft recalled the truce, which happened about 10 years ago.

"At a Super Bowl, Bill was standing there as I approached, and he just said to me, 'If I had to do it all over again. I would have done things differently.' And I said, 'So would I,'" Kraft told USA TODAY Sports.

"It would have been pretty special," Kraft said. "We were just coming at it from different times. And so much in life is timing. But in the end, we have a great relationship today. I have great respect for him. He did a great deal for our franchise. And I will forever be grateful for that."

Parcells didn't fly home with the Patriots from New Orleans after the Super Bowl loss to the Green Bay Packers, and he abruptly left for an advisory job with the Jets that soon became the head coaching gig.

Then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue had to broker a deal between the AFC East rivals, with the Jets sending four draft picks to New England in return for Kraft releasing Parcells from his Patriots contract.

From the perspective of retirement and tranquil setting of Saratoga's historic horse country, where he owns a home and several race horses, Parcells said he wished he and Kraft had managed their anger better.

"We both have talked about that," Parcells said.

Kraft said the fundamental stress on their relationship was that he was a naive owner who had just purchased the team in 1994 and inherited a veteran, Super Bowl-winning coach — twice with the New York Giants — who was set in his ways and setting his year-to-year timetable.

"Look, I was a new owner," Kraft said. "I had a lot of debt. I had stardust in my eyes. I had a Hall of Fame coach. I was green and new. And I don't think Bill had ever dealt with someone like myself. He had a contract that said he'd coach year to year. And that didn't make me feel secure.

"When I bought the team in 1994 ... he was coaching year to year, making personnel decisions. He used to drive down to (his home in) Jupiter, Fla., at the end of the year and he'd say he'd decide whether he was coming back to coach. That didn't inspire confidence in me."

Parcells, who will be 19 days shy of his 72nd birthday when inducted, went on to coach the Jets to the 1998 AFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Denver Broncos. He stepped down as Jets coach after the 1999 season.

But his departure from the Patriots still leaves Parcells reminiscing.

He ticked off the names of a team that lost to Brett Favre's Packers in that 1997 Super Bowl. "You know who I had?'' Parcells asks rhetorically. "Curtis Martin, Ben Coates, Tedy Bruschi, Terry Glenn, Willie McGinest, Drew Bledsoe, Shawn Jefferson, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Troy Brown and Adam Vinatieri. Nobody knows that I signed him.''

And few remember it was Parcells who turned the Patriots, who were 9-39 from 1990 to 1992, into a Super Bowl team.

"I think we would have been a great team together at a different time," Kraft said, "me understanding what I understand now, this being my 20th season as an owner, and him being seasoned. I wish it could have worked out differently."

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Follow Jim Corbett on Twitter @ByJimCorbett