Scarnecchia gave up beach lifestyle to return to coaching

New England offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia was having a good time in retirement after the 2013 season.

“I had my own shop in the back of my house,” Scarnecchia said. “I was building furniture. I was playing golf. We had a house in Rhode Island, so I was at the beach all of the time surfing, paddle boarding, body surfing and playing with my grand kids.”

After two years out of the game, Scarnecchia, 69, got a call from Patriots coach Bill Belichick. He was working a coaching clinic at Pacific University.

“(He) wanted to know if I’d be interested in talking about coming back,” Scarnecchia said. “When he called, at the time, I wasn’t (interested). Then he called about 10 days later and we talked it out.”

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