I remember that Parcells refused to take the team plane home after the beat-down SuperBowl the Green Bay Packers put on them, I think the score was 35 - 21; the score is deceiving, the Pack dominated this game from the outset. Parcells was upset because he was overruled on getting that TE he wanted on Offense. Kraft & Co. told him to take that SS that got cut shortly after the SuperBowl.
Kraft got lucky with that NYJets debacle where Belichick was the Head Coach for ONE DAY before he was "fired".
Belichick had the balls to stand up to the GM and Kraft and say that he needed to get rid of the "bad apples" and that SS was one of them. They won either 4 or five games after Parcells left, I will look this up later to make sure, but the Pats started 0-2 and Belichick got so mad he took the team out in the woods somewhere and "buried" a football as symbolism that the buried football was BAD football he did to want to see anymore.
Soon after that, Bledsoe gets hurt, then Brady steps in. Despite that Tuck Rule game, the game that forever changed the fortunes of both the Patriots and the Oakland Raiders, the Pats have overachieved with most of those wins, particularly after the 2004 season. Their gaudy records gets them in position to compete in the post-season, but of late, they have faltered.
Hate to say this, but the Pats are doing what Pittsburgh and Packers are doing; they are relying on top-notch QB play to get them most of their wins. Too cheap to spend salary cap dollars available, it has created the handicappers nightmare: the COIN FLIP in most games. Defenses be damned. We don't need no stink in' Defenses. Now look at the teams: Pats? No D. Packers? A joke. The Steel Curtain? Distant memory.
Seattle? Did not they have one of the lowest payrolls in the NFL? Next year they gotta start paying QB Russell Wislon, RB Lynch, a few other D players. THEN the wheels will fall off. See in defending Super Bowl order:
1) Ravens;
2) Steelers;
3) Packers;
4) NY Giants
49er coach George Seifert lost his cool one time, when he was asked about why he took that Panthers job to finish 1 - 15. He said, paraphrasing;" I left San Francisco because of that god damned salary Cap". I couldn't keep Charles Haley and others. Very telling sentence indeed.