New England Patriots: Saluting the legacy of Dante Scarnecchia

Dante Scarnecchia is retiring after 34 years with the New England Patriots.

To add to their already long grocery list of needs this offseason, the New England Patriots are going to need to hire someone to take over offensive line coaching duties as Dante Scarnecchia has retired from the New England Patriots for the third time in his lengthy and successful career.

Scarnecchia has been part of the New England Patriots organization since the early ’80s. He worked for many Patriots head coaches over his 34 years with the team, including Ron Meyer, Raymond Berry, Dick MacPherson, Bill Parcells, and Pete Carroll.

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To put it in a better perspective, Scarnecchia was already on the Patriots’ staff before Robert Kraft even purchased the team in 1994 and before Bill Belichick was handed the keys in 2000.

Scarnecchia has been an offensive line guru since he first started coaching football back in the ’70s when he was an assistant at his Alma Mater, Western California. A former offensive lineman himself, Scar is considered to be a specialist or master in the art of coaching the technique of playing on the offensive line.

Scarnecchia has been part of 17 division championships, nine conference championships, and won five Super Bowls as a coach for Patriots (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, LI, and LIII). In 2019 he became the longest tenured coach in the entire NFL.

As one of the most respected people in the organization, there’s a lot of people with great things to say about Scar including Robert Kraft.

"“Dante Scarnecchia has been unbelievable in every way. As a coach, he was extraordinarily talented at teaching his players and bringing the most out of each of them. Dante put everything he had into helping his players achieve their maximum potential; the mark of a great coach. His contributions to our team and to the game of football are unprecedented over the last four decades.”"

A player who perhaps could have been influenced the most by Dante Scarnecchia is David Andrews. Andrews is an undrafted player who has then gone on to start every game for the Patriots since 2015 and won two Super Bowls along the way.

When Bill Belichick was first hired as head coach of the Patriots twenty years ago, one of the first decisions he made was making Scarnecchia, the offensive line genius, his assistant coach.

When Dante Scarnecchia previously retired from 2013-2015, Tom Brady was sacked 51 times during that time frame. His presence on the field is going to be a great loss for the New England Patriots.

All of Patriots Nation should salute Dante Scarnecchia and congratulate him on an amazing career with an amazing organization. Although this will be the third time he has retired in his career, you know what they say; third time’s the charm.