HOUSTON - Going to the Super Bowl this year has hurt, more than helped, Charlie Weis reach his career goals. Still, the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots is well versed at keeping things in perspective.

Twenty years ago, Weis was coaching high school ball in Morristown, N.J., hoping to have an impact on kids and the community, but wondering if he was really cut out for the work. He remembers walking into the teachers' lounge one day and listening to his colleagues gripe about work.

''They're saying, '12 more years 'til retirement,''' Weis said. ''I'm looking at my watch, just trying to make it through the day.''

He got out, but life didn't get much easier.

In the two decades since leaving high-school coaching, the 47-year-old assistant has endured the long climb up the college and pro coaching ranks, including a decade working for Bill Parcells and, much more seriously, the specter of morbid obesity and the gastric bypass surgery to correct it that almost took his life.

Given all that, the fact that another trip to the Super Bowl may have cost him a shot at an NFL head-coaching job this year just doesn't seem so bad.

''Sure, we'd like to be head coaches,'' Weis says of himself and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, who also was a candidate. ''But those jobs have come and gone.''

Weis interviewed with the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills during New England's bye week, but an NFL rule that prohibits assistants from being hired while their teams are still in the playoffs essentially prevented either from being seriously considered.

Weis and Crennel have fielded several questions this week regarding what they think about the rule. Weis insists, correctly, that it doesn't really matter what he thinks.

''The Giants hired Tom Coughlin. He's an experienced, excellent coach. You can't really argue with that,'' Weis said. ''The Bills hired Mike Mularkey. He's been a great assistant for a lot of years. It's hard to argue with that.''

It's also hard to argue with the notion that Weis belongs on the list of good, upcoming coaches who will be mentioned for job openings everywhere during the next few years.

One of his opponents on the sideline Sunday, Panthers coach John Fox, remembers his own situation all too well. Three years ago, he was defensive coordinator for the New York Giants, considered a shoo-in for a head-coaching job. But the Giants made the Super Bowl, and Fox's career goals were set back a year.

''You can't try to figure it out,'' Fox said. ''You just have to let it play out the way it's going to.''

Weis, however, has to overcome more than just the NFL rule.

One of the criticisms whispered around the league is that Weis, because of his weight problem and the near-death experience he went through with the gastric bypass, isn't in good enough health to handle the rigors of being a head coach.

''I think some people were totally misguided in terms of my physical abilities to put in a full day,'' Weis said.

Still, it's an allegation that hits him hard, in part a byproduct of the decade he spent as an assistant coach under Parcells, with the Giants, Patriots and Jets.

''He knows what buttons to push,'' Weis said. ''With me, it was how I wasn't working hard. It'd be 11:30 at night and I'd hear, 'Oh, you're trying to get out of here?'''

But he did work hard, and now, he's reaching the pinnacle of the sport - for an assistant coach, at least.

Weis has turned Pats quarterback Tom Brady into a star in the making. He's 60 minutes away from his second Super Bowl title. He is, by almost any measure, very well qualified to move on. But worrying about it this week? It just doesn't make sense to him.

''We have our work cut out for us,'' Weis said. ''I'll have plenty of time to reflect a week from now about my personal feelings on missed opportunities and job aspirations.''