Free Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers Page B

For the first time since they were founded in 1925, the Giants were not 100 percent owned by the Mara family. Tim’s departure combined with Parcells’s health issues—he soon would have several heart procedures—led to Parcells stepping down in May.
    It didn’t take long for Parcells to regain the desire to coach. He turned down the Bucs after the 1991 season when a deal seemed imminent. Tampa called a news conference to announce Parcells’s hiring, but he changed his mind at the last minute. He then flirted with the Packers, who hired Mike Holmgren, and approached the Vikings, who hired Dennis Green, but ended up sitting out the 1992 season. The next year Orthwein offered him the chance to coach the Patriots and run the football operation. Parcells, his health under control and his competitive fire burning once again, found that very attractive. He had been the linebacker coach in New England in 1980 and enjoyed the area. He left New England after only one season when Ray Perkins hired him as the Giants’ defensive coordinator, but when he was ready to coach again in 1993, the Patriots were the best fit. He inherited a 1–15 team that would have been dropped down to the second division if the NFL operated like European soccer leagues. Parcells selected quarterback Drew Bledsoe with the first pick in his first draft and was in the playoffs in his second season, which wasKraft’s first season. Everything seemed great. Yet when a rookie owner who has just bought his hometown team inherits an iconic coach used to having his own way, it’s only a matter of time before the honeymoon period ends and the divorce proceedings begin. For Kraft and Parcells that took four years and one Super Bowl appearance.
    Even though he had long since made his peace with Parcells, some of the stories Kraft told during dinner gave him indigestion. Almost immediately after he purchased the team, Parcells all but flattened him trying to run a power sweep. Kraft said Parcells wanted to create a layer between the two that was completely unacceptable. He remembers the conversation vividly. It took place in the first week after the sale became official. Kraft said Parcells told him, “I think it would be good if you sold 1 percent of the team to Tim Mara.”
    What? Are you kidding me? “Why would I do that?” Kraft said. “He said he will be between us. He wanted someone in between us. So all of a sudden, my bubble and my dream started to get shattered. I said, ‘I don’t want anyone between us.’ ”
    Tim Mara was Parcells’s confidant. It wouldn’t have made any sense for Kraft to make him his only partner. The 1 percent share would have been worth less than $2 million and not even make a dent in Kraft’s financial obligations. There was no upside to adding Mara to the family business, especially since he had a contentious relationship with his uncle Wellington, a man Kraft deeply respected. Kraft didn’t need to be best friends with Parcells, but they needed to communicate. He didn’t need a liaison. He’s very approachable; he’s not a meddler but likes to be kept informed. Parcells already was running the football side of the business, and so there was no reason to make Mara a partner and insulate Parcells from him. He didn’t want Mara, just as he turned down other investors who wanted to buy into the team.
    Parcells denies that he wanted Kraft to make Mara a partner and claims he doesn’t recall that ever coming up. “That’s bullshit.Why would Tim Mara want to own a part of another team? His family owned the Giants,” Parcells said. A high-ranking league insider corroborated Kraft’s version and believes part of the motive for Tim Mara was to irritate his uncle Wellington.
    “I got to give Bob Tisch the credit,” Kraft said. “He said to me at the finance meeting when I was coming in for the interview, ‘Look, if you don’t need to have partners, don’t take partners.’ So I said, you know what, I’ll wait. I