On January 27th, 2000, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft made an offer to the New York Jets that would set the tone of the league for the next two decades. There was an assistant with the New York Jets that Kraft wanted to become the head coach of the Patriots and he wanted him badly enough to ship away the team's 1st round pick.
"For a No. 1 draft choice, we can bring in a man that I feel certain can do something, rather than the uncertainty of a draft choice," Kraft said after making the trade. "And it wasn't even close when I thought about it that way."
The Patriots acquired Bill Belichick from former head coach Bill Parcells and the Jets, and the rest has been NFL history in the making.
Parcells was instrumental in conducting the trade conversation that would ship his right hand man in Belichick to New England for the Patriots' first round pick after weeks of court cases, new team ownership, and a lot of vitriol sent in both directions.
"I told him [Kraft] it was Darth Vader calling and he said he knew who that was," Parcells said about his conversation with the Patriots owner. In the great tradition of the Sith Lords and the Rule of Two, there can only be a master and an apprentice. We all know that Belichick is current master after vanquishing Parcells, and it's likely that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is the apprentice.
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This trade will go down in history as the greatest of all time. Here's to another 16 years of Belichick.