Patriots’ Shuffle Is Underway

Moments after the New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXIX, when the night air was still clouded with smoke and confetti, Romeo Crennel’s cellphone buzzed.

It was an executive from the Cleveland Browns.

The call was not just to congratulate Crennel, the Patriots’ accomplished defensive coordinator, but presumably to welcome him into the Cleveland family.

“They offered me the head coaching job, and I told them I would come,” Crennel said late Sunday, after New England’s 24-21 victory over Philadelphia.

“I will go over to Cleveland [today] and try to finalize that and go to work.”

Meanwhile, New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis has been juggling two jobs since December, when he was hired as Notre Dame’s football coach.

This week, he plans to throw himself headlong into recruiting prospects and rounding out his coaching staff.

You won’t find much pity for the Patriots around the NFL, though. After all, the franchise has dominated this decade, winning three of the last four Super Bowls, and -- even in an era of the salary cap and competitive balance -- have assembled a dynasty rivaling that of the Dallas Cowboys in the early 1990s, San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s and Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s.

So it’s only natural that New England would become a victim of its success, a place where coaches are groomed, cultivated and, ultimately, let go.

“Romeo and Charlie have done a great job,” Coach Bill Belichick said Monday. “Their record speaks for itself, and a lot of the success that we’ve had ... a large share of the credit should go to them. We wish them well, and we’ll have to adjust and make some changes on our end. But that’s just the way it is every year.”

It works that way in college football too.

After winning its second consecutive national championship, USC has watched four coaches leave -- and perhaps is about to lose a fifth.

Norm Chow, the Trojans’ high-powered offensive coordinator, is considering an offer from the Tennessee Titans to take a similar post. Already gone are offensive line coach Tim Davis, who said Monday that he was joining the Miami Dolphins, quarterback coach Carl Smith, who had earlier been hired as offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, who took over as head coach at the University of Mississippi and took USC graduate assistant Dennis Slutak with him.

It’s a tried and tested tenet of the sports world: If you can’t beat them, hire them.

For Weis, accepting the Notre Dame job was a no-brainer. He’s an alumnus of the school and still counts it among the premier jobs in football, even though the Fighting Irish have been in a down cycle for some time.

But even with his new job tugging at him, Weis said his most important responsibility in the last two months was upholding his commitment to the Patriots -- even at the cost of losing recruits at the college level.

“If I would have walked away, it might have saved Notre Dame a couple of players,” he said. “But the fact that it could have had a detrimental effect to the Patriots, that’s not the right way of doing things. I said that right from the beginning.

“I think I owed it to the Patriots and the organization and the people of New England to finish what we started.”

Insiders say the loss of Weis will affect the Patriots more than the loss of Crennel, because Belichick still controls the defense.

Weis worked closely with quarterback Tom Brady and helped develop him from a sixth-round pick into the Pro Bowl player he is today. Weis said he would continue to feel connected to Brady, even when he is at Notre Dame.

“There are a lot of people I’m real close with, and I’ll start with the quarterback,” Weis said. “I’m going to be the first person to second-guess all his decisions next year.

“You can tell him right now that I’m going to sit there with my satellite dish, and I’m going to be calling him a dummy every time he makes a bad read.”

One of the hallmarks of the Patriots this season was their resiliency, their ability to fill the shoes of top-notch players with the feet of relative unknowns.

Consider the way they spackled their secondary after losing their outstanding starting corner backs, Ty Law and Tyrone Poole, to injuries this season:

After their safety, Eugene Wilson, was injured in the second half of the Super Bowl, New England’s defensive backfield included an undrafted rookie and an unheralded second-year player at the cornerback positions and another rookie at free safety.

The only veteran was Pro Bowl safety Rodney Harrison, who had two interceptions, made seven tackles and in the process may have driven home an important point as New England and any other dynasty looks forward.

Whoever does stay around needs to perform at a high level.