Karma Strikes Back

After Brother Clive's Traveling Freak Show left town midway through the 1970 season, Billy Sullivan and General Manager Upton Bell brought in a guy who was the mirror opposite of Rush.
John Mazur was a two-time AFL champion as offensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills. He was strict, organized and competent. Bell hated him.

I don't mean hate as a euphemism here. We're talking VooDoo dolls here. On the other hand, Mazur wasn't too keen on Bell either.

It's difficult to tell where the origin of this hate fest was. Mazur was head strong, had a believe of how he wanted things done and also had a strict military background. Bell accidentally released six players when he forgot what day the deadline for resigning veteran players was. Bottom line, it was everything. These two couldn't agree on where to get coffee in the morning.

Then as time went on, the two would do things for the singular purpose of aggrevating the hell out of the other. For example, in 1971, running back Carl Garrett was one of Mazur's favorite players. On top of that, he was one of the few on the team who weren't bad, old, or bad and old. Bell had to trade him because this was the start of his bizarre campaign to get Mazur fired.

In return for the very competent Garrett, Bell got the professional pain-in-the-butt Duane Thomas. Picture Manny Ramirez on a Valium and Quaaludes cocktail. One Thomas's first day, he got into an argument with the coach over whether a two- or three- point stance should be used during a certain play. Thomas finally ended the conversation by saying, "I do what I do, man."

Mazur finally threw him off the field and the team captains started to pool to see if Mazur was going to cut Thomas first or if Thomas was going to get Mazur fired. Call it a draw since Thomas refused to take the physical and the trade was recinded.

By each passing week, the Patriots 1971 season was beginning to resemble the movie "Major League." Despite everything Bell did to try and get Mazur fired, the Patriots actually weren't that bad. Rookie quarterback Jim Plunkett was having a pretty good season. The oft-cut Bob Gladieux and the oft-traded Carl Garrett added some punch to the running game. By week 14, the Pats had actually beaten league luminaries such as the Oakland Raiders and the Miami Dolphins.

But it wasn't enough for Bell, he wanted Mazur's head. During a meeting of the Patriot's board of directors (right after the legos part of the agenda), Bell talked the board into agreeing to fire Mazur if the Patriots didn't win the final regular season game against the Baltimore Colt - or as they were then know, the defending Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Colts - at Baltimore. That certainly seems fair.

At one point in my life, I considered becoming a Buddist because I love the concept of Karma. The Patriots got wind of this little nasty deal and decided to put up a fight. Despite that, they were still trailing 17-14 with about a minute to go. The Patriots did have the ball, but it was on their 12 yard line. There was no overtime back then, so if that Pats got a field goal, it wouldn't matter, they still didn't win. That was the moronic requirement.

It didn't matter. Plunkett stepped behind center at his 12 and looked to his right. That's where he saw single coverage on his old college roommate and then number one receiver, Randy Vataha. Plunkett gave a quick nod. Vataha knew what he wanted and ran a "go" pattern as fast as he could. Jim hit the little receiver in stride down the sidelines and there was no one back there.

Up in the press box, Bell was nice enough to complete the great moment of Zen by screaming at the top of his lungs for Vataha to; first, drop the ball, second, slow down and, third, fall down. None of them happened and Mazur kept his job one more year despite nearly punching Bell after the game.

As with most things Patriots before 2001, this didn't affect anything since both were gone by the end of the 1972 season.