Al Groh wasn’t the Jets coach for much longer than Bill Belichick was, but for a while back in 2000, he was the toast of the town -- or at least he would’ve been if the Giants weren’t making a run of their own, all the way to the Super Bowl (they would’ve needed about a dozen of David Tyree’s miracle helmet catches in order to be competitive with the dominant Ravens that day).
Groh, who got the job when Belichick stepped down as “HC of the NYJ” after a good 11 or 12 seconds, had instant success with Gang Green, as the Vinny Testaverde-led team started the 2000 season at 6-1 and was 9-4 -- with a playoff spot firmly in sight -- with three games to go.
Naturally, because they’re the J-E-T-S, they dropped those three to finish 9-7 and out of the money. Soon after, Groh decamped for the University of Virginia, becoming in all likelihood the only coach ever to leave the NFL after a winning season in order to take the helm at a middling college program whose own fans think so little of their team that they refer to themselves as the Wahoos.
With the 11-3 Pats set to play the 3-11 Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, it’s hard not to wonder, if Belichick kept the HC job, would he have fared better that season than Groh? Or, for that matter, then the guys who followed him: Herm “You Play To Win The Game” Edwards, who also had early success with playoff appearances in his first two years; Eric “Simply Incredible That He Was Ever Actually Called ‘Mangenius’ Mangini,” who, yes, also started off strong, earning a wild card spot in his rookie season; and, of course Rex Ryan, whose first two seasons in New York suggested a guaranteed trip to Canton in a very large yellow sports jacket down the road.
In fact, if you combined the first few years of the Groh/Herm/Mangidiot/Rex reins, the resume would nearly rival Vince Lombardi’s. Belichick, meanwhile, is headed for the Hall of Fame whenever he decides to retire from the Patriots after his own Lombardi-like run.
Would the Hoodie be on the way to the Hall if it was green instead of gray? Hard to say. Would the Jets QBs over the past 15 years still have been an over-the-hill Testaverde, an oft-injured Chad Pennington, a Brooks Bollinger-like Brooks Bollinger, a Brett Favre that appeared even further past the hill than Vinny until he was rejuvenated for in Minnesota, a guy best known for being knocked unconscious by a teammate’s posterior, and, of course, a Geno Smith? If so, for all his absurdly impressive gridiron acumen, a Tom Brady-less Belichick likely would’ve gone the way of all the aforementioned Gang Green coaches long ago.
Can you see Belichick in a TV job? He might be the only person in the world that would provoke a channel change to C-Span.
