An in-demand head soccer coach filed a complaint against the New York Jets and the National Football League 25 years ago, alleging a league-wide party ban crime that hampered him from pursuing his employment.
William Belichick was the plaintiff, and he was being represented by Jeffrey Kessler, who had already successfully litigated antitrust cases for the NFL Players Association and its people. Those included the landmark 1991 event, McNeil v. NFL, which ushered in the team’s present system of free company.
Kessler, the senior co-chairman of Winston & Strawn, is probably most notable today for his role as course co-counsel in the NCAA-held antitrust case that paved the way for players to receive direct compensation from their colleges through revenue sharing as a result of the House arrangement.

After a 48-year professional job, Belichick has then decided to put his newfound experience to the test. At the age of 72, he has already made the decision to enter this blatantly professionalized world of college sports.
In a recent phone interview, Kessler said of his former client,” I think this is, simply, the perfect time for Coach Belichick to take his amazing experience and knowledge to a team like North Carolina’s.”
He enters toe-deep, with a major barrier in place. Belichick’s five-year employment agreement with UNC, which was publicly unveiled by the school on Thursday, allows him to prematurely exit the agreement after June 1 for the low, low price of$ 1 million.
In addition to its coach-friendly buyout terms, Belichick’s UNC contract also is among the first employment deals to explicitly embody Kessler’s latest undertaking, stipulating that the school will provide up to$ 14 million in annual revenue for Tar Heels football players, over the duration of Belichick’s tenure.
Beyond the Kessler relationship, there are other interesting parallels between Belichick’s job machinations this week and those of a quarter-century before, which served as a angry, if telling, preface to his classic work with the New England Patriots.
For one thing, Belichick’s school test comes at a point in his career when he is reportedly facing an edible form of NFL-wide avoiding, after resigning from the Pats on Jan. 11 after 24 seasons.
When Belichick announced his resignation as the team’s replacement to his former boss, Bill Parcells, the day after he was officially named head coach of the New York Jets, the clock turns back to January 4, 2020. He had only been employed for 24 hours.

As he read from prepared remarks, Belichick stated to the assembled media that day,” I have decided to resign as the head coach of the New York Jets, due to the uncertainties surrounding my position with the team, as it relates to the team’s ownership.”
He continued to point out that the decision “dates back quite a ways” to 1997, when Belichick first agreed to work as Parcells ‘ assistant coach for the Jets and that he didn’t have the confidence to lead the team. That Parcells ‘ contract, according to the lawsuit, had stipulated that after he had served for two years as head coach, he would have the option to “re-appoint” Belichick to that role while retaining his authority as the franchise’s chief operation officer. According to the contract, Belichick would be in charge of” all football operations and report to the president” if this did occur.
Owner of the Jets, Leon Hess, passed away in May 1999, which in his will led to the sale of the team. Parcells had stated throughout the 1999-2000 campaign that he was considering leaving his coaching position at the end of the season, but he had refrained from making a succession plan that would give Belichick complete control over football operations. The Patriots were reported to be interested in hiring Belichick as its head coach and general manager as the season came to an end. Following the Patriots ‘ final game on January 2, 2000, Parcells abruptly resigned as head coach and the team immediately sought Belichick’s resignation. Parcells made it clear in announcing his decision on January 3 that he would continue to be the director of football operations and that Belichick would be the only head coach to succeed him.
NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue informed the league’s owners that the Jets still held the contract with Belichick and that any attempt to speak with the coach about employment would violate the NFL’s anti-tampering policies after Belichick announced his resignation on January 4.

A week later, Belichick appeared before an NFL arbitration hearing presided over by Jeffrey Pash, the league’s executive vice president. Kelsler claimed to Sportico that he and Belichick had in a private reference to the forum as the” Court of Pash.”
Belichick’s supporters argued at the hearing that the NFL was breaking with antitrust laws by forbidding the coach from working for other teams, and threatened legal action if the commissioner’s ban wasn’t lifted. Robert Wood Johnson IV’s purchase of the team from Hess’s estate had already been approved by the NFL’s finance committee. Johnson wrote a letter to Tagliabue asking the commissioner to delay his decision regarding Belichick so that the new owner could talk with the coach first after the arbitration hearing. Then on January 21, Tagliabue informed Belichick that he was prohibited from working for any other NFL club for a year after Johnson had publicly indicated his interest in Parcells ‘ remaining head coach.
Belichick was the one who “unilaterally decided to foreclose the possibility of a future” with the team, according to Tagliabue. After the Jets refused Belichick’s offer to employ him as head coach, with full operational control, he filed his lawsuit against the NFL, seeking a court injunction over what it decried were the league’s illegally anti-competitive tampering policies.
What I like best about it is how Bill approached being a client in the same way that he approached being a head coach, Kessler said. At two in the morning, I had to eject him from my office because he wanted to read through every draft and go over everything we did.
Belichick’s complaint, authored by Kessler, noted that one of the distinguishing features of the NFL from other pro sports leagues” as well as from college” football, were the “talents and rates of compensation of NFL head coaches”.

The legal effort was futile because the federal judge ruling in the case quickly drew the same conclusion as Tagliabue: Belichick was to blame for his professional slump.
” He had a head coaching position with the New York Jets, highly compensated, with the prestige, the title, the exposure, the market and the team that certainly should have provided him adequate rewards”, observed U. S. District Court Judge John W. Bissell.
Although the lawsuit was dismissed, within days the Patriots and Jets reached a deal that gave Belichick the opportunity to become the Pats ‘ head coach in exchange for the Jets receiving numerous draft picks. Under Belichick, New England would win the first of six Super Bowls in 2001.
Tom Brady, the quarterback for the Patriots, hired Kessler in May 2015 to file a legal challenge to his four-game suspension for the alleged Deflategate scandal. Following his initial victory for Brady in federal court, which overturned the suspension, Kessler was given a chance to play on the field for the Patriots ‘ home opener of the 2015-16 season. Belichick claims Kessler approached him while he was watching the game from the sidelines.
” Jeff, I want to thank you for being such a great lawyer”, Kessler recalled Belichick telling him. However, you are aware that you were the only person who received a preliminary injunction for.
But of course, that is all in the past.
Belichick has already lasted longer in that capacity than he did while leading the Jets, and he is now a head coach for the college.
” I think this can work out very well”, Kessler said. ” I certainly hope it will, you know, we’ll have to see if the coach enjoys the recruiting part of it, which, you know, is really not something you have to do ( in the NFL ). But otherwise, I think this is great timing for him”.