Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and Robert Kraft are the first names that come to mind when people think of the New England Patriots dynasty, which won six Super Bowl titles. Ernie Adams is not known to a lot of fans, but his contributions were key to the run New England made before he retired from football in 2021.
Who Is Ernie Adams?
Adams and Belichick met when they were in high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. Adams worked with the Patriots in the mid-1970s before moving on to the New York Giants, where he was reunited with Belichick, who was an assistant on the team. Adams was an offensive assistant before moving to director of pro personnel until 1985.
Adams joined his high school friend in 1991 when Belichick was named head coach of the Cleveland Browns. After Belichick was fired, Adams returned to work on Wall Street. He returned to New England when Belichick was named head coach in 2000.
Adams talked to Pats from the Past Podcast about his relationship with Belichick, saying, “We’ve been having a football conversation for 50 years. At the Giants, we’d go for long runs together. We can do a lot of things very quickly because we have some common reference points.”
Adams added, “Something that happened in Cleveland in 1993, nobody else on the face of planet Earth will remember but, ‘Hey Bill, remember what we did in Cleveland? This really worked in this situation.’ We can make big changes in a hurry because we’ve spent so much time talking; we know what each other are talking about.”
Adams’ Impact on the New England Patriots
Adams’ official title was Football Research Director for his entire second tenure with the Patriots, which lasted over 20 years.
Former Patriots executive Scott Pioli told NBC Sports Boston in 2020, “Ernie has been a huge key to the success. He’s been a part of some great, great football teams. He’s a hidden figure that people know a little bit about.”
Adams was involved in all the key aspects of the Patriots, including the draft, player development, practice preparation, and game adjustments. Pioli said, “He would identify a lot of things. I’m not going to get into — that’s part of the Patriots thing, you’ve got a cone of silence. I will say this: Ernie did a lot and does a lot, and he does it as well as anybody that I’ve ever been around.”
Bill Belichick shared some insight on Adams in December 2023. “Ernie was more [involved in the department of] deciding what plays to run. I mean, if you have, call it 100 plays a week, 35 a day, round numbers. I mean, a team like Kansas City, you could run 400 plays easily — some of the same plays out of different formations, different personnel groups, different motion. It’s a different adjustment, too.”
Belichick talked about Adams selecting plays to practice: “Those are key decisions to make. So, Ernie would be more on that side of it. How they would block it, how they would run the play, maybe how they would formation it would be the hardest thing on us. We usually try to make it a little harder in practice, so if it comes up in the game, we’re not too surprised by, well, that’s a hard adjustment.”
Pioli said, “He’s a very smart guy. Everyone knows how smart and how brilliant he is, but he’s also an incredible human being, and he’s very intuitive. He sees a lot of things. People make him out to be this spy-like thing. He just sees things that are just normal human behaviors, and he just has a great mind. He contributes a lot to that organization.”
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