You made some interesting points, Blue, except for your Central point. PFW did NOT name the Pats the worst organization prior to the 2001 season. They named them the least likely team to be in a superbowl. That's a big difference. The evidence simply doesn't match up. Bob Kraft took over the team in 1993 and had 2 losing seasons in his first 3 years. After that the team went to a superbowl and didn't have another losing season until 2000. Not to say he didn't make mistakes. He made plenty of them but learned from them. After the superbowl Kraft rewarded a lot of players with big contracts that put the Pats (and to an extent Pete Carroll) in a horrible cap situation that Jets fans can understand. The Pats had as talented 22 starters as anyone in the league, but beyond that were very thin due to cap issues. While they had decent teams in the Carroll era, they couldn't reach their potential when the inevitable injuries hit. The 2000 5-11 team was a result of BB starting to clean out a number of those bad contract, and going into the 2001 season it was thought to be another year of rebuilding, hence the PFW article. You are right in one aspect. The 2001 success was as surprising to Pats fans as it wast to everyone else. At that time few Pats fans had any idea what BB was building The Key element in the Pats success beyond Bellichick and Brady was Kraft learning from the Parcells and Cap mistakes he made. BB had the control that both Parcells and Carroll didn't get. And when guys like Milloy and Law didn't budge on the big money he sadly let them go, unlike in the 90's when he didn't know how to say no. I've said this before, the Krafts have owned the Pats 19 years and have experienced just 3 losing seasons, and 2 of them came in the first 3 years. Is it any wonder Pats fans are spoiled an arrogant :wink:
I think it starts with the owner. Leon was I am sure a very nice man, a good businessman, and I am sure his family loved him. But he was feckless as the Jets' owner. His one good move was hiring Parcells. Otherwise, it was one underwhelming move after another. Woody should not really be running the team. He hasn't accomplished anything on his own in his life, so why should we expect him to know how to run a football team? I know he's got Tanny there, but I am pretty sure Woody is behind most of the big decisions for the Jets, like getting Tebow. Awful.
