FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Former Patriots coach Bill Parcells was inducted into the franchise Hall of Fame on Saturday, resolving a long-running feud with owner Robert Kraft that boiled over at their only New England Super Bowl appearance together and festered for three decades.
A two-time Super Bowl champion — neither with New England — and the only coach ever to lead four different teams to the playoffs, Parcells didn't directly address the way things ended with the Patriots in 1997 except to express
some regret.
“We sometimes reflect on things, and you wish you would have done things a little differently,” he said, standing on a packed plaza at a stadium he didn’t stick around to see built, with the Patriots’ six championship trophies behind him — all earned after he left by his protege, Bill Belichick. “Well, I come back here and I see this. I wish I would have done things a little differently.”
Patriots receiver Julian Edelman — the Super Bowl MVP in 2018, New England’s last championship — was also inducted in Saturday’s ceremony. A seventh-round draft pick as a quarterback out of Kent State, Edelman played special teams and defense before developing into a favorite target for Tom Brady at receiver.
“Walking in on my first day of rookie minicamp, I knew it was going to be an extreme challenge to make this team. Then the big dog showed up,” Edelman said. “Tom made it look so easy. I remember the first time I saw him throw a ball. I was like, ‘Holy smokes!’ Suddenly my switch from QB to receiver seemed like a great decision.”
Parcells, 84, took over a 2-14 team and combined with No. 1 overall draft pick Drew Bledsoe to win an AFC championship four years later. But at the Super Bowl — even before the game — Parcells began plotting to leave the team; he explained his desire for total control over the roster by saying, “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”
Parcells wanted to jump to the New York Jets, but Kraft blocked the move until then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue brokered a deal in which the Patriots received four draft picks. The two clashed again in 2000 when Kraft wanted to hire Belichick, who was supposed to succeed Parcells with the Jets; the dispute was settled with a first-round draft pick heading to New York.
Parcells was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013, but his defection to the rival Jets kept him from joining into the franchise shrine five times previously before Kraft announced this spring that Parcells would be inducted as a contributor.
“Over the years, we've both mellowed,” Kraft said in his introduction, calling Parcells “the man who helped lay the very foundation of what the New England Patriots would become.”
“In 1993, Bill Parcells stepped into a franchise in turmoil and gave it something desperately needed: an identity, structure and hope,” Kraft said. “He didn’t just arrive in Foxborough, he stormed in. Parcells was old school, tough, uncompromising, a head coach with an iron fist.”
Kraft, also 84, told reporters in April that it was his wish to see Parcells honored “while both of us are alive.”
“I am sure he would have been voted in eventually, but I wanted to expedite the process so he can enjoy the ceremony,” Kraft said then.
Edelman was a key part of all three Super Bowls he won.
He caught the game-winning touchdown in a victory over Seattle for the 2014 title that was sealed by Malcolm Butler's interception at the goal line. Two years later, his diving, fingertip catch helped keep the Patriots alive as they rallied from a 28-3 deficit against Atlanta.
After the 2018 season, he was the Super Bowl MVP after grabbing 10 passes for 141 yards. His 118 career playoff receptions is third all time behind Jerry Rice and Travis Kelce.
“You weren't the biggest. You weren't the fastest. But nobody was tougher, nobody was more dependable and nobody came through in the clutch when it mattered the most more than you,” Brady said in a congratulatory video. “Some of my favorite memories on the field was throwing the ball to you, Jules, in the biggest games with everything on the line.”
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