BOB RYAN

Ultimate team player

1/31/2002

EW ORLEANS - The Snowplow Game? He was there. Hey, he was coach of, yup, the special teams when Mark Henderson drove his little tractor onto the field.

The first March To New Orleans? He was there. The second March To New Orleans? He was there.

2-14? He's seen that, too.

Owners? He's known four, from Billy Sullivan to Victor Kiam to James Busch Orthwein to Bob Kraft. Head coaches? He's worked under Ron Meyer, Raymond Berry, Dick MacPherson, Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll, and Bill Belichick. (Yes, he managed to miss Rod Rust during a two-year sabbatical to Indianapolis.) He was even the acting head coach when Coach Mac had some health problems.

Who knows more about the inner workings of the New England Patriots these past two decades than Dante Scarnecchia? He arrived in Foxborough as part of the Meyer entourage in 1982, and with the exception of 1989 and 1990, he's been here ever since. He has seen the good, the bad, the ugly, the predictable, the bizarre, and even the inexplicable, which is as good as any other way of explaining what all of us are doing in New Orleans to begin with.

It is a thoroughly atypical coaching resume. Assistant football coaches do not ordinarily have the opportunity to stay in one place very long and thus put down family roots. They come and they go with alarming frequency, the usual reason the inevitable firing of the man who had hired them in the first place. The new guy comes in and he brings his own people. No one quarrels with the process, because in the long run they all benefit. Their wives fully understand the nature of the business and it is a sad given that a spouse's wishes and feelings are of no consequence.

''I don't know why we've been here for so long,'' said Scarnecchia. ''I don't know why we've been here through so many owners and so many head coaches. There must be a reason for it, but I don't know what it is. I take it all as a blessing. We're very fortunate.''

The reason is pretty evident, isn't it? The man must be pretty good at what he does. And he must be extraordinarily easy to get along with.

Right now he is listed as the assistant head coach/offensive line coach. In his time as a Patriots assistant he's been given control of tight ends, linebackers, and special teams, and he has also been a full-time defensive assistant. He coached defensive backs during one of his college stints. So we safely can say he is knowledgeable, as they say, on both sides of the ball.

But he couldn't be any happier than he is right now. He's got the job he'd just as soon hold onto for the remainder of his coaching career.

''I want to continue to coach the offensive line,'' he declared. ''I love the challenge, especially in this league.''

The offensive line certainly has been one of the great stories on this team. A source of great criticism ever since the last Super Bowl season (1985-86), this unit of Matt Light, Joe Andruzzi, Damien Woody, Mike Compton, and Greg Robinson-Randall has given the team an opportunity to run the football in an acceptable manner while doing a decent job of protecting Tom Brady.

That these players are now being coached by a man who was on the staff when the Patriots first came to New Orleans 16 years ago is an utterly improbable tale. ''It all happened,'' said Scarnecchia. ''Some of the things that happened I could never explain. I don't know why Raymond Berry called me at 11:30 one night to say he was letting me go and then called back at 1:30 to say he had changed his mind.

''Bill Parcells? I didn't even know him. He said to me, `I have a job you can do, but it's below what you've been doing,' and I said, `That's OK; I'll take it.' My son was entering his senior year in high school and we didn't want to move. So, quite honestly, there were some concessions along the way.

''I knew Pete [Carroll], but I didn't know Dick MacPherson. There were so many things you couldn't explain, but it's all worked out fine.''

As for Belichick, ''Well, of course, I knew Bill from his time with the Patriots before he went to the Jets. He looks in on the offense and makes his points. He is really a good coach.''

Scarnecchia knows very well what the Patriots are up against here, but can it really be any worse than it was the first two trips to New Orleans?

''The 1985 Bears were a great football team,'' he said. ''They had a smothering defense, and they were good enough on offense with one of the great players of all time in Walter Payton. It was just a great football team, one Parcells always talks about. He'll say, `Well, they're not the '85 Bears.'

''Green Bay came down to Brett Favre. If he's playing for you, you can beat anybody. They had a decent defense.

''The Rams have a dynamic offense, maybe as good as has ever been in this league. They're also a very, very good defensive team. Throw in the special teams and they've got a very complete team.''

By the way, he's no different than the rest of us in one regard. He admits he never saw it coming when the 9-7 '84 team, the 6-10 '95 team, and the 5-11 '00 team each somehow found their way to the Super Bowl the following season. ''To be honest, I really never saw any of them coming,'' he admits. ''You just hope to see improvement. But at some point each of these teams got on a roll.''

No matter how many goofy things he has witnessed while being in the employ of the Patriots, Scarnecchia never has been flustered. ''There isn't anybody who has been in pro sports - and this would even include you people in the media - who doesn't know that this is a crazy business, whether you're winning or losing. The only way to overcome it is to just concentrate on doing what you do. If you're 2-14, or losing tough games, it's no fun. But you keep on working because you're still doing what you want to do with your life.''

With an 0-2 record in Super Bowls, Dante Scarnecchia isn't looking for any moral victories here. ''If you don't win this game, it just isn't any good to be here,'' he said. ''It just isn't. It can't be. That's what everybody here needs to understand. You just can't be happy to be here.''

He really is Mr. Patriot, even though he never would claim that title. ''If people want to look at me as a resource,'' he said, ''that's fine. If they ask, I answer. If they don't, then I don't say anything.''

Are you starting to see why all those head coaches like having him around?

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.