It took some time, but Bill Parcells is finally getting a place in the New England Patriots Hall of Fame.
Team owner Robert Kraft announced on Tuesday at the NFL league meetings in Florida that he will be including Parcells in this year’s class as a contributor, ending a rift between the two that culminated in Parcells leaving after New England’s Super Bowl loss after the 1996 season.
“In the early 1990s, the Patriots were in disarray,” Kraft said in a statement. “But the hiring of Bill Parcells in 1993, a two-time Super Bowl champion, brought instant credibility to the franchise.”
Parcells coached four seasons in New England from 1993 to 1996. The team went just 5-11 in his first season. Then, Parcells led a fast rebuild, with the Patriots going from the bottom of the AFC East to an 11-5 finish in 1996. They made a run to the Super Bowl to cap that season, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers.
That Super Bowl was significant in the end of Parcells’ tenure in New England, with him resigning as coach days later in a dispute with Kraft about personnel control.
Parcells ended up leaving the Patriots to coach the AFC East rival New York Jets in 1997. Then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue worked out a deal giving the Patriots four draft picks to allow Parcells to coach the Jets.
The incident caused friction between Parcells and the franchise, with Parcells being nominated for the Patriots hall five times (2011, 2012, 2014, 2020 and 2023), but never making it in.
In the intervening years, Parcells was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the only coach in NFL history to ever lead four different teams to the playoffs and three different teams to a conference championship game. He is also a member of the Patriots 1990s All-Decade Team.
Kraft told reporters in Florida that it was his wish to see Parcells honored “while both of us are alive.” Parcells and Kraft both will turn 84 this summer.
“I am sure he would have been voted in eventually, but I wanted to expedite the process so he can enjoy the ceremony,” Kraft said.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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