Tom E. Curran • E-mail

The Jets, Dolphins and Patriots. Teams tied together atop the AFC East. And key people from each team tied together by a decade-plus of double-crosses, dirty dealings, broken agreements, hurt feelings, ugly words, awkward hugs and the occasional reconciliation.

It all starts with the Tuna. Bill Parcells has, since 1993, rehabbed every AFC East team except the Bills. Employing Machiavellian tactics at every turn, Parcells hatched a management style that made loyalty a flexible concept.

Ultimately, Parcells’ one-time lieutenant Bill Belichick went to school on Tuna’s style. And added to it, throwing a little of his own favored philosophy — Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” — into the mix.

Finally, history repeated itself when Belichick’s protégé, Eric Mangini, not only fled the Patriots coop for the Jets but raided the shelves as he went.

So Parcells is now the Tuna in Winter, presiding over the resurrection of the once-proud Dolphins, Executive VP of Operations in South Florida.

Controlling Miami on the field? Former New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington. Pennington, you’ll recall, was kicked to the curb when Mangini and Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum (a former Parcells protégé, Massachusetts native and enemy of the Patriots) signed Brett Favre.

While Parcells may have been the godfather to Tannenbaum’s career, Parcells is the real-life father-in-law to Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli. Pioli is married to Parcells’ daughter.

Dallas is where Parcells last worked before he joined Miami. And by the way, from Dallas (the city), Parcells brought head coach Tony Sparano and GM Jeff Ireland to Miami. It’s also worth noting that Favre’s direct quarterbacks coach is Brian Daboll, a former Patriots assistant who scaled the New England coaching ranks before jumping ship to join Mangini and the Jets in 2007.

Got it all? Should I start at the beginning? Here you go. CliffsNotes version ...

Bill Parcells was head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 to 1990. He won two Super Bowls and became an icon. When first hired by New York in 1979, the 37-year-old Parcells was the Giants defensive coordinator. The defensive assistant and special teams coach for that team was also hired in 1979, 27-year-old Bill Belichick.

After the 1979 season, Parcells left to coach the linebackers for … the Patriots. When Parcells returned to New York in 1981, Belichick had become linebackers coach. Parcells was his defensive coordinator. In 1984, his second year as head coach in New York, Parcells made Belichick his defensive coordinator.

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The two Bills had a working relationship but not much interpersonal chemistry. They were often referred to as “Big Bill” (Parcells) and “Little Bill” (Belichick). Parcells made fun of Belichick’s dour persona, nicknaming him, “Doom.” Belichick, not one for self-aggrandizement, wasn’t fond of Parcells’ blustering personality. But the relationship paid off well for both men.

When Parcells quit coaching in 1990 to do TV for NBC, Belichick took over as head coach of the Browns. After getting fired by Cleveland after the Browns' ill-fated 1995 season, Belichick hooked back up with Parcells in New England for 1996. The Patriots were surprise AFC champs that year. But animosity was growing between Parcells and Pats owner Robert Kraft. It hit a crescendo in the runup to the Super Bowl which Parcells spent secretly negotiating with the Jets to take their head job after the Super Bowl.