1/3
Before the Dynasty.
That 2000 season was really something.
During his first season in New England, the Patriots played losing football at 5-11 but managed to change the direction of the franchise.
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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Inside a flag-waving stadium that celebrated the nation's resilience while mourning the loss of thousands, coach Bill Belichick was in a grumpy mood.
His
New England Patriots were 0-1, preparing to face the
New York Jets, the franchise he had departed by awkwardly resigning as
"HC of the NYJ" at a news conference on Jan. 4, 2000.
He was 5-12 as the Patriots' coach, and the fan base was restless. This was Sept. 23, 2001, the first game after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Foxboro Stadium was thick with myriad emotions. Fans cried and cheered.
Patriotism was bigger than football.
But for Belichick, it was red, white and gloom.
During the pregame, he chatted up Jets coach Herman Edwards. Alongside them was Jets special-teams coach Mike Westhoff, who recalled the conversation this way:
"I'm walking out on the field and Belichick is walking out with Herman, and they're talking. He's standing right next to me, and Herman said, 'How ya doing?' Bill said, 'We're horrible, we f---ing stink.'
"He said, 'The quarterback [Drew Bledsoe], I don't know [about him].' They lost their opener to Cincinnati and I'll tell you his exact quote. Belichick said, 'I'm not going to make it through the year. He'll f---ing fire me before the year is over.' That's what I heard."
Everybody knows what happened a few hours later and for the next 19 years. Bledsoe was injured,
Tom Brady was the anonymous relief pitcher who became the GOAT and the Patriots built a dynasty that includes six Super Bowl championships.
That part of the story is well-documented. The forgotten part is what led to Sept. 23, 2001, how Belichick -- now considered the greatest coach in NFL history -- was so down on his prospects that he was convinced he would be fired by Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
As Belichick prepares his current Patriots (2-5) to face the Jets (0-8) at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN's Monday Night Football, this is the story of his lost season in 2000 when the Patriots played losing football but managed to change the direction of the franchise under their hard-driving coach.
How it started
Details of the Patriots acquiring Belichick in a trade from the Jets, his background as a defensive assistant in New England in 1996, and prior tenure as Browns' coach from 1991 to 1995 have been well covered. He arrived with a plan that sent shock waves through the locker room and coaching offices. Here is what players and staff who were on that 2000 team recall:
Damien Woody, offensive lineman: "The first night we had training camp, Bill comes in front of the team and he's just like, 'Look, there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Don't ask for any breaks because there won't be any breaks. Just put your head down and go to work.' And then he just leaves. I'm like, 'Oh my God, what is about to happen?'"
Charlie Weis, offensive coordinator: "It was [to] get people indoctrinated into the way Bill does business."
Ty Law, defensive back: "[Former coach] Pete Carroll had a different energy, was always upbeat. A lot of people didn't take to it, but I loved it. ... So when Bill comes in, everything was different. It wasn't as free as it was."
Belichick, on the first day of 2000 training camp: "I know everyone comes to camp with their own personal expectations and team expectations, but there's going to have to be a significant price we're going to have to pay to get those things done. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears ahead. That's what players need to focus on. The dessert comes later on."
Scott Pioli, vice president of player personnel: "That year was about installing a culture. If you weren't all-in, you were out."
Brad Seely, special-teams coach retained from Carroll's staff: "It really was one of those feeling-out situations. We had a lot of new guys as coaches together, so we had to figure out how to work with each other, what everybody wanted from each other."
Chad Cascadden, a former Jets linebacker who signed with New England that spring: "The conditioning test; there were a number of different guys that did not make it. The punishment was you couldn't practice until you passed it. You had guys having to retake the test every day until they passed. It was like, 'Wow! Come on!'"
Tedy Bruschi, linebacker, on the first day of 2000 training camp: "Vacation's over. It's time to win games."
Woody: "Let me tell you, it was the hardest training camp I've ever been a part of. It was brutal, like BRUUUUTAL! We were just slugging it out. It seemed like every night a guy was retiring, a veteran guy. Bill would address the team before the night meetings and he would say, 'Such-and-such person retired,' and he'd move on. Like a recurring theme."
Matt Chatham, linebacker: "That was one of the hardest years of my life. It was a test of attrition. Monday practices during the season. Incredibly stressful. You didn't go home and say 'Wow, I'm in the NFL!' It was more like, 'Holy s---, how much longer am I going to be doing this?'"
Otis Smith, cornerback: "Everybody had to abide by the same rules. If [quarterback] Drew [Bledsoe] screws up, Bill would get on him just like if Otis screws up. He would put it on the big screen and say, 'This is why we're not winning, because we're not performing at the right time. When it's your time to make a play, make that play.' That was the culture he was trying to set and it didn't matter who the player was."
Cascadden: "The practice field was a half-mile down the road from the locker room and we'd pile in cars to get there. It was crazy. You'd see guys in pickup trucks with 10 guys hanging out the back. 'How is this remotely safe?' I remember Bob Kraft almost hit me with his car one time."
Woody: "He was just weeding people out. We had a very veteran team, and it was a way of shedding dead weight, guys who had been in the league a long time. His method was, 'You know what? I'm going to put these guys through hell and there will be people who fall by the wayside. The guys who survive, those are the guys we'll ride it out with and see how they do.'"
Belichick, on the first day of 2000 training camp: "The main things I'll ask of them, and be pretty firm on, are that they be on time, that they are attentive, be in condition, and give 100 percent effort. If they do those things, it will run pretty smoothly, and if they don't, it's very difficult to manage a group this size when we don't have that type of cooperation and conformity."
Chatham: "If I remember correctly, and maybe I'm exaggerating, they cut down to maybe 47 players. Generally teams will cut down to 51-52, and then add a couple players from other teams. There were several of us who weren't with the team in camp, and then showed up, practiced for three days, and lined up to play against Tampa in that first game. My head was spinning."
Pioli: "The salary cap was a disaster. When we got there, we were $10.5 million over the cap and we had only 41 players under contract. Think about that. There were some weeks where we had only 51 guys on the roster, but some of that was a message. One of the things we wanted to eliminate was entitlement. You weren't handed jobs, you had to earn them."
Woody: "We had to dig ourselves out of the salary cap and we were a team in transition. We were a bad team but you could tell the way he taught. He didn't let any detail go. I've always said I've learned more about the game of football from Bill than anyone I've ever been associated with."
Curtis Martin, Patriots and Jets running back: "What I also think was good for him was he had his stint in Cleveland. Then he came to New England and went to New York. He's one of those mad genius-type of guys who will just recognize all his mistakes that he made when he was at Cleveland and come back and be able to cross all the T's and dot all the I's that he realized he may not have been able to do the first go-round."
Smith: "I don't want to say a sacrifice year, but it was kind of like that. It took us a while. We were trying to make a cake, and trying to make it taste good. We were stirring and blending, using different ingredients, trying to figure out the right recipe for us. It was a tough year, man, until we figured it out."
Woody: "The one thing I took away from 2000 was how brutally awful that camp was. It was relentless. It felt like Bill had his foot on your throat the whole training camp. ... I tend to use that year for anything that I have going on in my life. I always tell myself, 'If I can survive that, there's nothing else out here I can't survive.'"