Bill Parcells And Robert Kraft Are Still Beefing 27 Years After Patriots Split

Nearly 30 years after parting ways, there's still no love lost between Bill Parcells and Robert Kraft.

The third episode of Apple+'s docuseries The Dynasty: New England Patriots takes a look at the friction between the team's owner and former coach that came to a head at Super Bowl XXXI. 

Ahead of the game, it leaked that Parcells was planning to leave the Pats to coach the New York Jets. And the rumors were true. In fact, Parcells didn’t even take the team plane home after the 35-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

(Getty Images)

Now, both Kraft and Parcells are telling their sides of the story.

Robert Kraft And Bill Parcells Have A Falling Out

According to Parcells, his departure was entirely justified because Kraft wouldn’t give him personnel control. The people Kraft put in charge, according to the former coach, were "incompetent."

"We finally got some success, but I felt like Kraft wasn’t always in line with the things that I knew to be in the best interest of building a team," Parcells explained. "Kraft had no real background in football, and in his inexperience, took the draft away from me and he gave it to somebody else.

"I felt like some people that were incompetent were making decisions for the organization personnel-wise, and I didn’t like it. I knew I wasn’t going back to the Patriots."

(USA TODAY)

But that was selfish behavior, according to the team owner.

"With Coach Parcells, I didn’t feel he always put the team first," Kraft said. 

"He was making decisions that were best for Bill Parcells, as opposed (to) for the New England Patriots. I promised myself that in the future, I would find a coach that truly put team first."

Turns out, a feud between the head coach and team owner doesn't bode well for team morale. Then-Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe also lent his perspective to the documentary.

"That was a frustrating thing for us as players," Bledsoe said. "For us to go to the Super Bowl after being the worst team in the league, it was a pretty big accomplishment. And that was not the story during the week of the Super Bowl. The story was whether or not Parcells was going to go to the Jets."

(USA TODAY)

The Patriots ultimately fared better in the divorce.

Parcells — now a Hall of Famer — retired (for the second time) in 1999 after going 29-19 as head coach of the Jets. After a brief stint with Pete Carroll, New England hired Bill Belichick and drafted Tom Brady. Together, they won six Super Bowls over the next 20 years.