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Why Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells made an ‘exception’ to draft a Patriots legend

When it came to evaluating players, Bill Parcells had tried and true system that relied on finding prospects that fit the exact prototype it was looking for.

But it also had room to make exceptions.

That’s the way the Hall of Fame coach explained it in a recent column for The 33rd Team, writing that his teams strived to have players “to have all them be prototype or have qualities that allowed us to make an exception.”

One such player was New England Patriots legend Tedy Bruschi, who Parcells took in the third round in 1996, the coach’s final year with the team.