[sammyg2]

“Pats Get Their Man: Bill Just Not The Ticket”:
Boston Herald, Jan. 28, 2000

Football coaches worth surrendering first-round draft picks for: Vince Lombardi. George Halas. Paul Brown. Bill Parcells. Joe Gibbs. Don Shula. Chuck Noll. Tom Landry, Bill Walsh.

Sorry folks. Bill Belichick does not fit the mold. He is not in that coaching stratosphere. Not in my book, anyway. He’s not worth the tariff the Patriots surrendered to Parcells and the Jets yesterday. He’s not someone for whom I’d hand over that kind of ransom, especially when that ransom is going to one of my chief AFC East rivals.

…Considering the Patriots could have potentially landed the general manager and coaching combination of Tom Donohoe and Dom Capers – for no picks whatsoever – why would you surrender a first-round pick and change for someone who doesn’t bring any more to the table?

“Patriots will regret hiring Belichick”
USA Today, Jan. 28, 2000:

The moments after Belichick took the podium and announced he was resigning his 24-hour position as “HC” of the “NYJ” were the moments New England should’ve realized it had a “BP” that better “GAF.”

As in “big problem” that better “go away fast.” For Belichick’s press conference, called on account of greed, exposed a man you wouldn’t want running your $2 hot dog stand, never mind your $500 million team.

The Patriots will regret the business they conducted Thursday, and not necessarily because they gave the Jets their first-round pick in this year’s draft. College prospects are as predictable as Atlanta’s winters. When Parcells was traded to the Jets, the Patriots received a small circle of draft choices that, in the end, did nothing to prevent Pete Carroll’s demise.

…So Bob Kraft’s wildest gamble has nothing to do with ends and safeties, and everything to do with the middle-aged mess he hired to coach them.

The Repository (Canton, OH)
from Jan. 29, 2000:

Sam Rutigliano, who was the Browns’ head coach from 1978 through late in the 1984 season, never saw Belichick as head coaching material.

“You can say all you want about Art Modell,” Rutigliano, who recently announced his retirement after 11 years as head coach at Liberty University, said in a recent interview. “Hiring Belichick was the greatest error that Art ever made … and the biggest error you make is when you live with the error.”

…“If you’ve ever watched Bill Belichick — and you guys went through the pain of watching him for five years — he just doesn’t have the communicative abilities to handle that part of the job,” Rutigliano said. “I think that he’s miscast as a head coach. It’s very obvious he is outstanding as a defensive coordinator. That’s where he belongs.”

Rams head coach Dick Vermeil was a little more accurate in his assessment in that same piece:

“I believe in my profession and I believe there are people who can make a difference in a leadership role as a head coach,” Vermeil said. “And I think that is a small price to pay for the right guy.

“I don’t know Bill Belichick that well, but the Patriots obviously think that much of him. If they’re right, it is a tremendous investment. To me, there have been a ton of first-round flops. If you get the right NFL coach, he will change your organization.”