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I just tweeted this, and like to explain my thinking beyond the tweet . . .
I tweeted – “Finally saw ‘The Two Bills’ last night on ESPN. Not bad, but that cheap shot at the end towards the Jets (not wanting to go to Jets locker room) was gratuitous, and I don’t blame Bill and Bill, more the people who produced it. Story didn’t need it and should’ve ended on editing room floor.”
For those who haven’t heard about “The Two Bills,” it is was a documentary where Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick sat down in the Giants’ locker room at MetLife Stadium and went over their history together and also hashed out some of their well-documented disagreements, like when Belichick quit the Jets’ head coaching position before coaching one game.
I found it fascinating, especially the stuff about what happened in 2000 when Belichick was supposed to take over as Jets head coach, but backed out, and after a legal battle eventually ended up in New England.
I will get back to that in a second, but I want to address that point I made in the tweet about the gratuitous cheap shot at the end of the piece.
From some reason when the interview ended, the documentarian asked the two Bills, on camera, as they were leaving the Giants’ locker room, if they would like to go into the Jets’ locker room at the stadium.
“Not the Jets’ locker room,” Belichick said.
“We’re not going in there. No, I’m not going in there,” Parcells says. “I don’t want to go in there. What’s the point?”
It has become a big story on social media that they both dissed the Jets.
But why did the film’s producer put them in this spot?
And why would the Jets ever allow Belichick in their locker room at the stadium?
I think it was a sleazy move, and the Jets should rip the people at NFL Film a new one for including this? NFL Films was involved in producing this documentary. NFL Films works for the 32 clubs. Why do this to one of the clubs? Why? Because they can. The Jets don’t fight back enough. If I was running the Jets things would be different. There would be a price to pay for media cheap shot artists. But that is for another day.
But getting to the more interesting part of the documentary to me, the saga in 2000 with Belichick and Parcells with the Jets.
I kind of got into this a little last week before seeing the documentary.
The biggest reason Belichick bolted the Jets in 2000 was the ownership situation. After his experience with Art Modell in Cleveland, he wanted to make sure he had a more stable ownership situation in his second head-coaching gig, and the uncertainty with the Jets scared him.
The Jets ownership situation was in limbo – while Jim Dolan and Woody Johnson were the finalist for the team, nothing had been decided yet when Belichick decided to bolt.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions here,” Belichick told reporters when he stepped down. “I have been concerned about it since Leon Hess died.”
I think he preferred to work for Kraft who he knew from his time on the New England staff.
February 12, 2018
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