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For what it's worth:
How to build a champion
Pats showed the way; can Parcells, rest of NFL follow?
NEW YORK -- Once upon a time, way back in 2000, New England owner Bob Kraft swam against the tide and hired a 47-year-old coach, Bill Belichick, who brought along a trusted friend with a knack for picking players, Scott Pioli, 34, to run the personnel side of the team.
Pioli would scout and prepare the free-agent and draft lists with his staff, and do contracts, while Belichick would coach and pick the players ... with the financial and moral support of Kraft.
The Patriots were $10 million over the cap then, and their top-rated free agent at an important position was a terrific young tackle, Jon Runyan. Nope, Belichick said; we're not going to further screw up our bloated cap by signing the richest tackle in football. So the Patriots bit the bullet in 2000 and 2001, trying to get better through the draft (Tom Brady came in 2000, Richard Seymour and Matt Light in '01).
Then they took a very interesting gamble in 2001. One of their best young defensive players, tackle Chad Eaton, was a free agent, and the Pats let him go seek his fortune. Eaton signed with Seattle for a bonus of $3.5 million. The Patriots signed 20 mid- to low-roster veteran free agents for $2.57 million in signing bonuses that spring.
Of course, the Patriots won the Super Bowl that season, with 16 of those free agents playing in an upset win over St. Louis. Mike Vrabel, Antowain Smith, Roman Phifer and Larry Izzo were among them. In the spring of 2002, New England was the only defending Super Bowl champion in the first nine years of free agency to enter the next season under the salary cap.
After that 2002 Super Bowl game, I told Belichick at the Patriots' team party, "You've just given a blueprint to every team in the NFL -- draft well, find a quarterback and fill in all the cracks through middle- and lower-class free-agency.''
"I know,'' he said.
Six years later, teams still don't follow the blueprint. I don't get it.
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