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Grudge match New Patriots coach excited to play former team
Posted: Tuesday May 16, 2000 12:48 AM
MILFORD, Mass. (AP) -- Bill Belichick doesn't focus on his bizarre departure from New York and Bill Parcells. He's more concerned with the next chapter in the rivalry between his New England Patriots and the Jets. "Am I prepared for the rivalry? Yeah, you bet," Belichick, getting ready for his first season as Patriots coach, said Monday night. "We know the border wars are over. Everything's peachy between the Patriots and Jets." Not quite. They started when Parcells left the Patriots after taking them to the 1997 Super Bowl and became coach of the Jets following a falling out with Patriots owner Robert Kraft. For three seasons in New York, Belichick was his defensive coordinator. And when Parcells stepped down after last season, Belichick became head coach of the Jets. He resigned the next day, saying he had misgivings because the Jets were for sale. On Jan. 27, he took over the Patriots after they agreed to compensate the Jets. Belichick said he's spoken with Parcells since then. "We won a lot of games together on several different teams," Belichick said at the semiannual meeting of the Northeast Region of The Associated Press Sports Editors. "Business is business. We each did what we had to do from a business standpoint. What happened happened and we're moving on." Belichick actually served three short stints as coach of the Jets. He had been defensive coordinator of the Patriots and left with Parcells for New York. But when commissioner Paul Tagliabue ruled that Parcells couldn't become coach unless the Jets compensated the Patriots, Belichick became head coach and Parcells a consultant. After compensation was arranged, Parcells took over as coach. After the 1998 season, Belichick filled in as head coach at the Pro Bowl when health concerns kept Parcells from doing that job. Then he spent one day last year as Jets coach after Parcells stepped down. Al Groh then became Jets coach. "It was something of a tradition," Belichick said. "At the end of every season with the Jets, I would be coach for a few days. ... Undefeated, untied, 1-0 in the Pro Bowl." The Jets are just one opponent in the AFC East, "the toughest division in football," Belichick said. "How this shakes out is tough to predict." He said some Patriots rookie draft choices and free agents were impressive in minicamp but "it will be pretty hard to make much of an assessment" until training camp starts in July. The AFC East will have a different look with the departures of Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith and Andre Reed from Buffalo, Dan Marino from Miami and Bruce Armstrong and Ben Coates from New England. "The landscape's changed," Belichick said. "That's the way the game is with the salary cap and the way the rules are." The Patriots were 6-2 midway through last season but finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs. Pete Carroll was fired after his third year as coach. The offense was the biggest problem, but Belichick stressed that he wasn't the coach at the time. "I haven't done an autopsy," he said. "I've just tried to take what happened at face value and move on."
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