Josh McDaniels decided to stay in New England on Tuesday despite reaching an agreement with the Indianapolis Colts to be their next head coach.
Most in the NFL -- from players to former coach Tony Dungy to even McDaniels' own agent, Bob LaMonte -- slammed the move.
On Wednesday, a man who was in McDaniels' exact same situation in 2004 and failed miserably at all of his stops after leaving Bill Belichick's Patriots organization, crushed the decision to NFL.com's Adam Schein on Schein On Sports.
"I mean, it's just unbelievable," said Charlie Weis, who moved on from being Patriots OC in 2004 to become Notre Dame's head coach in 2005. "I mean, look, everyone that's in a position to make a call can selfishly decide whatever they want because it's ultimately their life. But when you're a head coach, there's a lot of lives that you're affecting. It isn't just your life. OK. It's every assistant you hire, every person you hire and their families. They're all affected, too. And there was almost more of them. Because if the guys that were rumored to be leaving from New England with him, they were planning on packing it up and going, too. I mean, it's just unbelievable. I mean, unbelievable."
Weis, like McDaniels, coached a Patriots offense that won Super Bowls with Tom Brady under center, and, again, like McDaniels, was a hot commodity in the coaching world. Ultimately, he left for Notre Dame, where he piled up a 35-27 record and was fired in 2009. He went on to be the head coach of Kansas, where he went 6-22 in two-plus seasons and was fired once again in 2014. By all accounts, leaving Belichick and the Patriots was not a good move for the success, at least in terms of wins and losses, of his career. Yet even knowing that, Weis still says he has trouble believing what McDaniels did.
"I'm sure GM Chris Ballard's] reaction would have been just like any other person listening to your show right now," [Weis continued to Schein. "Where you've offered somebody millions of dollars, a lot of control, a lot of say, you're working hand in hand with this guy, to go rebuild this team and get them to the promised land and the guy calls back and says, 'Eh, on second thought, I'm not coming.' I mean, it's like a slap in the face."
Time will tell if McDaniels made the right call. But, clearly, Weis believes the decision was the wrong one, no matter where McDaniels ends up in the future.
