Chuck Fairbanks - NFL

NFL

On January 26, 1973, Fairbanks was named head coach of the New England Patriots. His first NFL Draft in 1973 saw the selection of John Hannah, Sam Cunningham, Ray Hamilton, and Darryl Stingley, the first of a solid run of drafts through Fairbanks' tenure with the team. The 1973 season was a 5–9 campaign. 1974 was marred by a league-wide players' strike during training camp and preseason, which actually helped the Patriots as Fairbanks and defensive coordinator Hank Bullough were installing a new system (today known as the Fairbanks-Bullough 3–4, or the 3–4 two-gap system) and with so many players who were not part of the NFLPA at the time, a great deal of training was accomplished, with eighteen first-year players making the roster. The Patriots stormed to a 6–1 start before other teams caught up; they finished 7–7. Fairbanks then had a falling out with quarterback Jim Plunkett, who was traded for important draft picks to San Francisco, and suffered when hardball negotiating tactics by Patriots ownership led to a team-wide player strike that cancelled a preseason game with the New York Jets. The team never recovered en route to a 3–11 season, but an important seed for the future was planted as Fairbanks had drafted quarterback Steve Grogan and Grogan got his first serious game action in 1975.

Fairbanks' Patriots erupted to 11–3 in 1976, a reversal of the 3–11 mark from the year before, and took on the 13–1 Oakland Raiders in the first round of the NFL playoffs. New England led 21–10 entering the fourth quarter, but a controversial roughing the passer call by referee Ben Dreith wiped out a late incompletion by the Raiders, and Raider quarterback Ken Stabler's dive into the end zone with eight seconds remaining gave Oakland the comeback victory. Replays subsequently showed that the Patriots' Ray Hamilton made no illegal contact. The call was condemned for years thereafter and remained a bitter experience for the Patriots organization.

In 1977, contract squabbles with offensive linemen John Hannah and Leon Gray resulted in discord within the team. The incident soured Fairbanks on Chuck Sullivan, who as the eldest son of team owner Billy Sullivan controlled the team's finances and had forced Fairbanks to renege on his proposed contracts with Hannah and Gray. Hannah, denied Fairbanks' promised contract by the ownership team, later argued the Sullivans "took Chuck's authority away and turned him into a liar."

The following year, his division-champion Patriots seemed poised to challenge for a Super Bowl berth, but just prior to the final regular season game, Sullivan suspended Fairbanks for again breaking a contract by agreeing to serve as head coach at the University of Colorado beginning in 1979. Fairbanks was reinstated for the team's first playoff game (and the franchise's first-ever playoff game at home), but the second-seeded Patriots lost 31–14 to the fifth-seed Houston Oilers.

Unwilling to let him leave with as few consequences for his actions as had the Sooners, New England sued Fairbanks for breach of contract. During discovery for the suit, Fairbanks admitted recruiting for Colorado while still working for the Patriots. The Patriots won an injunction preventing Fairbanks from leaving. However, on April 2, 1979, a group of Colorado boosters bought out Fairbanks' contract, allowing him to leave the Patriots. Paul Zimmerman, Sports Illustrated's dean of professional football writers, has speculated that the animus surrounding Fairbanks departure from New England stemmed from the fact that, unlike the late-season departure of New York Jets coach Lou Holtz for Arkansas in 1976, "no one" felt Fairbanks "was a really nice guy."