John Mazur John Edward Mazur ( born June 17 , 1930 in Plymouth , Pennsylvania ) is a former football player and coach who was a quarterback for the University of Notre Dame and also served as head coach for the New England Patriots from 1970 to 1972 . Mazur ' s outstanding quarterback skills at Plymouth High School in Pennsylvania caught the attention of Notre Dame coaches , leading him to play for the Fighting Irish from 1949 to 1951 , starting for the 1951 squad that finished 7 - 2 - 1 . The following year , Mazur went into the Marine Corps , playing quarterback for both the Quantico and Camp Pendleton Marines . Upon his discharge in 1954 , Mazur headed to Canada , where he spent one year with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League before suffering a career - ending ankle injury . In 1955 , Mazur entered the coaching ranks , spending the first of three years as an assistant at the Tulane University . He followed that with one year at Marquette University in 1958 , before heading east to work three years in a similar capacity for Boston University . On January 22 , 1962 , Mazur was hired as backfield coach of the American Football League Buffalo Bills , spending seven seasons with the team as offensive coordinator , helping them capture AFL titles in both 1964 and 1965 . By his final year with Buffalo in 1968 , Mazur had seen the team collapse with the worst record in professional football , a dubious distinction that helped them select O . J . Simpson in the NFL Draft . Looking for other options , Mazur was hired as an assistant with the Boston Patriots on February 6 , 1969 . However , the team struggled under new head coach Clive Rush , who resigned on November 3 , 1970 , elevating Mazur to his first and only head coaching role . Mazur was re - hired at the end of the 1970 NFL season , and selected quarterback Jim Plunkett with the first pick in the 1971 draft . Leading the team to a 6 - 8 mark that year , which included upsets of the Miami Dolphins , Baltimore Colts and Oakland Raiders , the team enjoyed its best record since 1966 , and Mazur was awarded a new contract with a substantial pay increase . That excitement would be short - lived as the Patriots won only two of their first nine games . Mazur then resigned on November 13 , 1972 , one day after a 52 - 0 shutout by Miami , and was replaced by Phil Bengston . Mazur would resurface the next year as defensive backs coach with the Philadelphia Eagles , and would survive the dismissal of much of the coaching staff following the end of the 1975 NFL season . However , after just one year working under Dick Vermeil , Mazur left in 1977 to join former Eagles assistant Walt Michaels , who had been hired as head coach of the New York Jets . After two years as defensive backs coach with the Jets , Mazur was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1979 , helping the team to its second straight 8 - 8 season . The following year , the team ' s fortunes dipped considerably with a 4 - 12 mark , while Mazur ' s health also took a turn for the worse . In December , he announced that he would be retiring to battle the effects of Parkinson ' s Disease . Since his retirement , Mazur ' s finances have dwindled because of his disease , forcing his now 74 - year - old wife Bernadine to return to work . In a 2005 Boston Globe article , Mazur notes that his $ 1 , 500 per month pension has not increased in more than a quarter century .