Weis established himself in New England and remains close friends with head coach Belichick, whom he first worked with two decades ago.
"I’m disappointed for Charlie, and his family and all the people
they took out there with them," the Pats' skipper said in a conference call on Tuesday. "Of course, I go back a long way with
Charlie and we have a good friendship. I talk to him on a pretty
regular basis, so I’m disappointed for him on that level."
With a situation that sounds too perfect to pass up, will the Pats mix things up and make the midseason hire?
"There are going to be situations like that — there have been every
year — where things happen on other teams and on other coaching staffs
or player rumors and so forth," Belichick said. "Anything along that nature is something
that would be addressed at a later point in time. It’s not anything
that is on the front burner at all."
The Weis-Belichick relationship extends far beyond their five magical years at the beginning of this decade. Weis, who has spent a total of nine seasons in the Patriot's organization, first worked with Belichick back in 1990, when Belichick was running the
New York Giants defense and Weis was an offensive assistant. A year later, Belichick went to Cleveland to make his coaching debut with the Browns, while Weis stuck around his home state of New Jersey with the G-Men.
After two years as New York's running backs coach, Weis joined the Patriots family in 1993, starting off as a tight ends coach for two years (1993-1994) before taking over as running backs coach in 1995 and wide receivers coach in 1996 — Belichick's first year with the Patriots.
A year later, the two fled south to join the AFC East rival Jets, where Weis took on offensive coordinator duties and Belichick assumed the role of assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. Then, in 2000, Robert Kraft brought the pair back to New England, where they re-wrote history.
While Weis returning to the Pats to give them that extra offensive edge sounds like a fairy tale ending, Belichick, as usual, is keeping his lips sealed:
"Right now my focus is on the Miami Dolphins, and getting ready to go down there and play a tough division game on the road. That’s where I’m at right now."
