Suddenly, everyone knew who O’Brien was, and everyone had an opinion on the blowup, which happened in full view of CBS’s cameras. It wasn’t the first time the two passionate competitors had gotten in each other’s faces - but every other time, it had happened behind closed doors, not in front of a television audience.
It may well be their last such argument.
O’Brien, the 42-year-old Massachusetts native, is coaching his last game with the Patriots Sunday, in the Super Bowl against the Giants. On Monday, he will assume the full-time responsibilities of being head football coach at Penn State.
While O’Brien dismissed the notion that he is walking into “the most difficult situation in the country,’’ as one reporter said yesterday, it is an uphill climb: Not only is he replacing an institution in the late Joe Paterno, he also is taking over a program besieged by the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
Many have wondered why Penn State settled on O’Brien; they know him only as the guy who screamed at the Patriots’ franchise quarterback.
A decade ago, O’Brien was a rising star in the college coaching ranks. He had graduated in 1992 from Brown, where he was a defensive end and linebacker, and was a graduate assistant with the Bears the next fall.
Just eight years later, he was offensive coordinator for a 9-4 Georgia Tech squad. When head coach George O’Leary accepted the position at Notre Dame, he took O’Brien with him to the most storied program in college football.
But no sooner did O’Brien find himself near the top of it all did it crumble. O’Leary was fired just days after being introduced in South Bend after it was discovered that he lied on his résumé.
Fortunately for O’Brien, new Tech head coach Chan Gailey brought him back to the school, still as offensive coordinator, and added the title of assistant head coach.
Stops at Maryland and Duke followed, and then O’Brien contacted an e-mail buddy: Bill Belichick. The two had met through a mutual friend. Belichick would contact O’Brien occasionally to ask about a player in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and O’Brien in turn would seek X’s-and-O’s information.
