You kept waiting for the “but” that never came. Glenn Foley spoke yesterday about the circumstances leading up to his departure from the Jets, his respect for Bill Parcells as a coach, his admiration for Parcells as a guy off the field. Still, you anticipated the next sentence containing the words “Parcells” and “fall off a cliff,” but it never happened.
“I don’t hold any grudges or have any bitter feeling toward the Jets or Bill,” said Foley, traded away to Seattle for a draft pick after the Jets’ remarkable season that saw him benched in favor of Vinny Testaverde. “He put a team on the map I didn’t think could be put on the map. He’s a genius in terms of winning football games. I don’t have any hard feelings toward him personally.”
But Foley has a date etched in his mind that surfaces without prompting. “January 2, 2000. And I’m not saying anything until after the game,” Foley smiled about the Seahawks-Jets affair in the Meadowlands.
“He’s tough to play for if you’re a quarterback,” allowed Foley, speaking at his football camp at Midland Park High School in New Jersey that has featured the Fordham staff and selected former Foley teammates. “He demands a lot. He gets on you a lot. As a quarterback, it’s the position you want full power at, and in that way Bill makes it hard. But if you don’t play quarterback, he’s a tremendous coach.”
Unless you get injured, which was the start of Foley’s decline last season. In the second game of the campaign, he suffered a nasty rib injury, continued playing – granted, in sub-par fashion – and the Jets lost. He told Parcells about the injury afterwards. Suffice to say the coach was not giggling.
“You get hurt and you play for Bill, you’re not going to be around. It’s that simple,” shrugged Foley, who will return to his high school and college No. 13 with Seattle. “Fair or unfair, it’s the way it is from the beginning. You’ve got to stay healthy.”
Foley, who will enter into an “open competition” against John Kitna for Seattle’s starting job, continually praised Parcells. The two met up at a recent fundraiser hosted by fellow New Jerseyan Jon Bon Jovi. Foley insisted it was cordial. He gave his former coach a “it’s good to see you, what’s up? Thanks for sending me to Seattle.”
Nope, no hard feelings.
“He’s a great football coach, a coach who’s going to win every year. The way he does it, his style of coaching, he’s going to produce winners. There’s no way with his philosophy that he’s going to fail unless he just doesn’t have any players at all … As long as Bill stays in New York, the Jets are going to have many more winning years,” Foley said.
Foley, whose camp yesterday contained an appearance by Jets receiver Wayne Chrebet, was enthusiastic about his chances in Seattle after working with new coach Mike Holmgren during summer minicamps. The only drawback, it seems, comes from his family. His brother, Ed, has joined the staff at Fordham as the offensive coordinator. He hoped for a reunion of sorts with Glenn – and their parents, who have moved back to New Jersey from Massachusetts.
The Foley parents form a remarkable story. Sue Foley, suffering from polycistic kidney disease, underwent a kidney transplant last year with her husband, Ed, serving as the donor. Since then, Foley and his wife, Jen, have started drives to raise funds, awareness and donors through a website (www.wings4pkd.org).
“As soon as I move here, he moves to Seattle. Just bad luck, I guess,” Ed Foley said.