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Ernie Adams Officially Retired From The New England Patriots After 21 Seasons

Kings of Boston Sports



Ernie Adams, a key element to the success of the Patriots dynasty over the past 21 seasons has officially ended his time in the NFL. Coach Bill Belichick told reporters it is Adams last practice with the team.

“Before we sign off here, I just wanted to take a couple minutes if I could and just again formally recognize Ernie and the contributions that he’s made to this organization and, frankly, to myself and the league,” Belichick said. “Ernie’s had such a big impact on our success here for the Patriots in so many different ways, from his organization with Scott (Pioli) in the scouting department and the grading scale and so forth to strategic coaching, situationally, game-planning in all three phases of the game — offense, defense, special teams. Team-building, personnel acquisition and so forth. I’ve leaned heavily on Ernie for 21 years here and going back to Cleveland and New York and our relationship which started at Andover over 50 years ago.

“Ernie’s been a great friend. He’s certainly been a great asset to this organization and to me personally, and I think that a lot of the things that he’s done have also been recognized by other coaches and other staffs in the league. There are a lot of people who are doing things that he does for different organizations, but some of the things that he really started and uncovered and showed the value of here. But his versatility and ability to do so many different things and his passion for football is really second to none. This will be his final practice today. We’ll miss him but always welcome him back. Hopefully, he’ll come back and visit us. I’m sure he will. But I just have a personal appreciation for Ernie and all that he has done, and on behalf of the organization, I want to thank him, as well. Ernie’s one to stay behind the scenes, but we’re going to put him out in front for you this morning.”

When asked if he’d be willing to return for special projects, Adams said, “Bill has all of my contact information.”

Adams was asked about his time in New England and how he pulled the strings outside of the spotlight.

“Basically, my job is to figure out as many things as I can to help the New England Patriots win football games,” Adams said. “In the end, that’s what we’re all about here. That’s what we do. So, whether it’s strategy, personnel or anything else. The thing that’s been great about my job is I’ve never really had any constraints put on me. I could go in any area I thought would help us and hopefully I’ve made some positive contribution.”

“I’ve always felt that the best thing you can have on a football team is to have fewer voices speaking because if you get multiple voices speaking, there’ll be inevitably some inconsistencies develop and then there’ll be a ‘what he said, what he said,’” Adams said. “We’ve just tried to eliminate all the distractions.”