New Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels thanks Patriots fans in full-page newspaper ad

At first, in 2001 at age 24, I was a “scouting assistant,” which meant that I said yes to everything I was asked to do at old Foxboro Stadium. Brian Daboll had plucked me from a year of selling plastics, and I used most of my tiny Patriots stipend that first year to buy a placeholder engagement ring for my incredible wife Laura. With a not-so-lavish marriage proposal at the Foxboro Residence Inn and a miraculous Super Bowl win in New Orleans that year, my tenure with the Patriots was off and running.

For the next two seasons (2002-03), I was privileged to learn from one of the best defensive staffs ever assembled. I was a defensive quality control coach under Coach Belichick, Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Rob Ryan and Pepper Johnson. Following a Super Bowl win in early 2004, BB asked me to coach the quarterbacks, which meant I shifted from drawing up defensive play cards to working with the GOAT: Tom Brady. For 13 of the next 16 years, I had a front-row seat to watch TB12 play the most important position in all of team sports better than anyone has ever played it. Far more personally significant, almost 2 decades of sharing a game day trench with Tommy forged a close relationship of trust and gave rise to a priceless friendship. Tom is as great as it gets on and off the field, and I appreciate how he’s made me better in so many ways.

The person who gave me my start in professional football, who gave me my first shot at coaching a position group, who named me OC at age 29 and who graciously welcomed me back to the Patriots after my three-year sabbatical in Denver and St. Louis is another GOAT: Bill Belichick. My father, Thom, a Hall of Fame high school football coach in Canton, Ohio, taught me the game of football. Bill taught me how to teach others how to play this game I love, and sculpted me into the coach I am today. Bill’s brilliance has been matched in my life only by his generosity; his willingness to share with me invaluable coaching axioms that have shaped and will continue to shape my career and my life immeasurably.

The third and final GOAT here is the man at the very top of the New England Patriots pyramid of success: RKK. Robert is relentless in his pursuit of excellence, and his results in business and with his football team speak to his unwillingness to lose. But RKK is a GOAT to me because of the life lessons he’s taught me and because of how warm and caring he has always been to me and my family. He treated me like a son, and I always felt his genuine support and love. The nostalgic, deeply emotional and hopeful phone call I shared with Robert the day I took the Raiders Job is one I will cherish forever.

Finally, I will miss you, all of you Patriots fans, more than you know. You are the epitome of resilience and the definition of support. I will never forget snowballs flying around after the “tuck” game, the way you embraced Matt Cassel after TB’s 2008 knee injury, the LOUD way that you expressed a “never say die” attitude in the second half of our Super Bowl against Atlanta and, most of all, you enthusiastically lining the streets for our half dozen duck boat parades. There is a reason they call Boston the best sports city in the world.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for giving the Patriots and my family a distinct home-field advantage. You took a naive kid from the midwest and made him a wicked savvy New Englanduh. All the very best going forward.