Ernie Adams
Place of birth	Brookline, Massachusetts
Position(s)	Football Research Director
College	Northwestern
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1975-1978 1979-1981 1982-1985 1991-1995 2000-present	New England Patriots (Offensive Assistant) (Administrative Assistant) New York Giants (Offensive Assistant) New York Giants (Director of Pro Personnel) Cleveland Browns (Offensive Assistant) New England Patriots (Football Research Director)

Ernie Adams is the Football Research Director for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. He is a long time of friend of head coach Bill Belichick. With Adams, the Patriots have won three Super Bowls. Adams is known for his eccentric personality and low profile, as well as his extremely thorough analysis of the game.^[1]

Contents 1 Early years 2 Professional career 2.1 First stint with Patriots 2.2 New York Giants 2.3 Cleveland Browns 2.4 Second stint with Patriots 3 References 4 Further reading

[edit] Early years

Adams attended the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts, of which John F. Kennedy is also an alumnus. Given his knowledge of football for his age, Adams was asked to coach the school's intramural football team as an eighth grader.^[2]

He later attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts for high school. While there, he had read Football Scouting Methods written by Belichick's father, Steve Belichick, who was then a football scout for the United States Naval Academy. In 1970, Bill Belichick enrolled at Phillips Academy for a post-graduate year after graduating from Annapolis High School. Adams, a senior, recognized Belichick's name and the two quickly became friends.^[3] At one point, they snuck into a Boston College football practice together to practice scouting.^[3]

Beginning in 1971, Adams attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. As a freshman, Adams sought a student assistant position for the Wildcats' football team and secured it after impressing an assistant coach with a report on a football formation.^[1] He would serve as a scout for Northwestern until his graduation in 1975 with a degree in education.^[1]

[edit] Professional career

[edit] First stint with Patriots

After his graduation from college, Adams pursued an unpaid position with the New England Patriots in 1975. After contacting then-head coach Chuck Fairbanks numerous times, Adams received a playbook from assistant coach Hank Bullough to learn; Adams learned it in two days, and was presented with another playbook, which he again learned in two days.^[2] Adams was hired as an offensive and administrative assistant, and eventually prepared scouting reports for the team, which Fairbanks said were the most thorough he had received in his career.^[2]

[edit] New York Giants

In 1979, Patriots assitant Ray Perkins was hired to be the head coach of the New York Giants. He promptly hired Adams as an offensive assistant, working with the quarterbacks and receivers. Adams then convinved Perkins to hire Belichick as a special teams coach; Belichick had spent the previous eight years as a student at Wesleyan University and as an assistant for three NFL teams. Adams spent three seasons as the Giants' offensive assistant before moving to their scouting department as their pro personnel director.^[2] By 1985, he had become frustrated with that job,^[2] and took a lucrative job offer as a municipal bonds trader on Wall Street.^[1]

[edit] Cleveland Browns

Adams left Wall Street to join the Cleveland Browns in 1991, who had just given Belichick his first NFL head coaching position. Adams was again an offensive assistant, working with tight ends and running backs.^[1] However, Belichick was fired by the Browns in 1996, and Adams returned to Wall Street, starting his own investment business.^[1]

[edit] Second stint with Patriots

Belichick got his next head coaching opportunity with the Patriots in 2000. This time, Adams joined the team not as a coach, but as "Football Research Director." Adams fills a variety of roles for the team. On gamedays, he assists the coaching staff from the press box, advising Belichick on which plays to issue a replay challenge.^[1] He also assists the scouting department in preparing for the NFL Draft in the spring, and builds the team's player value chart for the draft.^[1] Finally, Adams works on special assignments for the coaching and scouting staffs, which typically involve breaking down game tape.^[1] In 2007, as part of Spygate, it was revealed that Adams received tapes from a "third camera" that recorded opponents' defensive signals against league rules, and studied them to learn the signals. Belichick confirmed this was the case, but said that they were only a small part of the "mosaic" that were the Patriots' offensive game plans at the time.^[4]

Adams (and Belichick) have also been known to have an interest in mathematical analyses of football; Adams contacted Rutgers University statistics professor Harold Sackrowitz, asking him to evaluate the Patriots' two-point conversion chart following a study by Sackrowitz on the study.^[2][3] Adams also presented Belichick with a study concluding teams punt too often on fourth down.^[3]

With the Patriots and throughout his career, Adams is known for keeping a low profile. Former Browns owner Art Modell notably quipped "I'll pay anyone here $10,000 if they can tell me what Ernie Adams does."^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Halberstam, David (2006), The Education of a Coach, New York: Hyperion, ISBN 1401308791