Interesting Article on Ray Perkins

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Last week, Daboll's former boss, the Patriots' Bill Belichick, explained the foundation of "all of the terminology that we use today" was laid, in part, by Perkins.

"Ray had a huge influence on my life and my career," Belichick says. "I learned a lot from Coach Perkins."

As head coach of the New York Giants, Perkins also gave Belichick his first major coaching opportunity, taking old friend Ernie Adams's advice and hiring the future Hall of Famer in 1979 to oversee the franchise's special teams.

On the outskirts of the Big Apple decades ago, Belichick worked alongside Bill Parcells and Romeo Crennel -- two coaches recommended to Perkins by former Tide quarterback Steve Sloan.

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Together, they all served as assistants on Perkins' staff, teaching a no-nonsense, uncompromising brand of football that was intended to transform the culture of a proud organization that had fallen on hard times. Belichick remembers Perkins, a former Alabama and Baltimore Colts receiver, as "hard-nosed."

"A real grinder," he adds.

"Having the Coach Bryant influence certainly was apparent. Philosophically, we were very compatible," Parcells tellsAL.com. "Ray was tough but fair."

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Perkins relished the challenge he had in New York. In 1981, with Parcells as his defensive coordinator, he guided the Giants to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. Life was good for the Petal, Miss. native making his way in the nation's biggest media market. Perkins proclaimed he had the "best job" in football and was content working for the Mara family that owned the team since its inception in 1925. But at a cocktail party with reporters one summer evening, Newark Star-Ledgerbeat writer Dave Klein planted a seed in Perkins' head.

Sidling up to Perkins, he said, "Let me ask you a question. What if Coach Bryant decided it was time for him to hang it up in Tuscaloosa?"

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