FOXBOROUGH — From his seat on the stage behind them, Dante Scarnecchia felt a little satisfaction as he watched the two men he cared about laugh, joke, smile and hug.
Their peace was cause for joy for the retired offensive line coach.
The frostiness between Bill Parcells and Robert Kraft has been thawing for a while, but on Saturday, the reconciliation was public when Parcells, along with Julian Edelman, was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.
For years, Parcells’ absence from Kraft’s cherished museum was a symbol of the feud that began during the 1996 season and peaked when Parcells was in negotiations to become the head coach of the Jets while coaching the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI.
When those machinations became public while New England was in preparation to face Green Bay, it was cause for both anger and embarrassment for Kraft and made Parcells a polarizing figure. Fans were split between loving him for making the Patriots respectable and relevant and hating him for planning his departure for their hated rival while giving less than full commitment to Super Bowl preparation.
But if the best revenge is living well, Kraft didn’t miss Parcells after all. There was no Curse of the Tuna. After a couple of middling years of Pete Carroll, the Patriots plucked Parcells’ hand-picked successor away from the Jets and went on one of the best runs in sports history.
But the fence-mending means that the Parcells Era is no longer an uncomfortable prologue, but part of the dynasty’s origin story.
At a time in America when football was taking over as the country’s favorite sport, the NFL was fourth among sports priorities in New England before Parcells. The franchise was marked by bad decisions and home TV blackouts and was dwarfed by the region’s forever-long devotion to the Red Sox and even its love of the Bruins and Celtics, who’d both rewarded their fans far more than the Patriots ever had.
Parcells created instant credibility and planted football roots in the area that are still blossoming.
Kraft, who bought the team a year after Parcells was hired, saluted what Parcells meant to the franchise.
Both men skillfully acknowledged their difficult history without shining the spotlight on it.
“Over the years we’ve both mellowed, shared laughs, swapped stories and reflected on the foundation we built together,” said Kraft, who made the decision this year to induct Parcells without the fans voting him in. “Today I want to say thank you Bill. Thank you for the fire. Thank you for the fight and for the many contributions you made to this franchise.”
Parcells said in hindsight he regretted how things ended.
“We sometimes reflect on things and you wish you would have done things a little differently,” he said. “When I come back here and I see this, I wish I would have done things a little differently.”
Those were two lines — one in Kraft’s introduction and one in Parcells — that kept the elephant in the room from looming, but both moved on to happier topics.
“Let me begin with the man, who helped lay the very foundation for what the Patriots would become. In 1993, Bill Parcells stepped into a franchise in turmoil and gave it something it desperately needed: identity, structure and hope,” Kraft said. “Bill built a culture. He mentored players and coaches who would go on to shape the NFL. He laid the groundwork for the dynasty that followed, guiding future Patriots Hall of Famers and instilling the values that became our identity.”
Parcells, who loved the verbal racquetball with the media during his coaching career, skipped both a scheduled TV interview and passed on speaking to reporters as he left the ceremony. Maybe he didn’t want to rehash the old issues. Maybe he didn’t want to get asked about Kraft and Bill Belichick or maybe he just had better things to do.
But the weekend might have been the 84-year-old’s last appearance in Foxborough. He left to cheers.
The peace between Kraft and Parcells naturally prompts speculation: Could Kraft and Bill Belichick, whose divorce was similarly messy, eventually reach a similar détente?
Maybe, but it took Kraft and Parcells almost 30 years.
But Scarnecchia, who has been a connective chord through four owners and six head coaches, was heartened by the newfound harmony between two people he cares about.
“I thought it was nice. It was great,” he said. “I thought (Parcells) really appreciated it too.”
Willie McGinest felt it too.
“He’s a great coach. The organization did great by him,” McGinest said. “It’s good to see him here.”