Former teammates Rodney Harrison and Richard Seymour believed Mike Vrabel was destined to be a head coach.
Vrabel was known for his high football IQ and for challenging coaches as a player.
His leadership style is built on making individual connections and galvanizing the team.
Vrabel is credited with quickly changing the team’s culture and leading them to the Super Bowl.
SAN FRANCISCO – Rodney Harrison saw the future with Mike Vrabel years ago. If anyone can become the first person to win a Super Bowl as a player and as a head coach, it is no surprise to Harrison that his former New England Patriots teammate might be that guy.
Harrison and Vrabel won Super Bowls together as mainstays of the Patriots defense during the early 2000s. Harrison was the star safety who revived his career after coming from the San Diego Chargers; Vrabel the versatile linebacker who also took snaps as a goal-line tight end and was a key influencer on three Super Bowl championship teams.
Now Vrabel, 50, in his first season as Patriots coach, can add to that ring collection with a victory against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 60.
“Back then, we all knew that Mike was different,” Harrison, on site as an analyst for NBC’s Football Night in America, told USA TODAY Sports. “You almost looked at him as a player-coach. Because Mike was so good.
“He wasn’t afraid to challenge the coaches back then. He would always ask questions. It was, ‘What about this? What if this happens? Hey coach, but you told us this yesterday.’ The thing I always loved about Mike was that he was so well-prepared. We would always have constant communication. ‘Hey, Rod, if he blocks on me, I want you to replace…’ and blah-blah-blah. So, to see the level of success he’s having with a Super Bowl team, it is no surprise because we knew he was going to be a really good NFL coach.”
That Patriots defense of that era was loaded with supreme players who led the way to the first few Super Bowl titles with Tom Brady, before the offense evolved as the dominant force for the latter crowns. Rugged cornerback Ty Law and hybrid defensive lineman Richard Seymour have busts in Canton as Pro Football Hall of Famers. Willie McGinest was the ace edge rusher, evidenced by his NFL career postseason record of 16 sacks. Tedy Bruschi aligned alongside Vrabel. Nose tackle Vince Wilfork was added in 2004 as a premier run-stuffer.
Harrison and others, though, saw Vrabel as the glue.
“Everyone that’s been around Vrabel knew that he would be a coach … and everybody knew he was on a fast track,” Seymour, who won his first ring as a first-round rookie during the 2001 season, told USA TODAY Sports. “He was always a coach on the field.”
Seymour recalled the nuances that made a difference and how Vrabel, who also joined the unit in 2001 as a free agent, was typically the one communicating adjustments that needed to be handled on the fly. He recalled how Vrabel would often predict an opponent’s play based on precise wrinkles. Maybe the tight end’s offset alignment, for example, might have provided a clue that led Vrabel to instruct Seymour to realign himself by a few feet.
“We had a saying that after a game, we were going to give a team back their playbook because we knew what they were going to do,” Seymour said. “That’s how well-studied we were. That’s how much he knew.”
‘Mike is a really nice guy. But Mike has an a–hole about him’
Bringing the X’s and O’s to life, though, represented just one facet of what made Vrabel special. His leadership style back then, like now, was built on individual connections. Seymour and Harrison are both struck by testimony coming from current players about Vrabel’s ability to tap into their psyche. It is reminiscent of how he rolled as a veteran player.
“He has the ability to read the room and knows how to touch buttons to galvanize the group,” Seymour said. “I think he’s a brilliant leader. He’s a guy that everybody liked. The guys want to be around him, and he has a way of making everybody feel a part of it. I think those are some of the qualities that it takes to be a really good head coach. He showed that during his playing days, too, being able to hang out with everybody, being able to bring everybody together.”
Then again, Vrabel has another side he can tap into that is, well, less accommodating. Harrison can explain.
“Mike is a really nice guy. But Mike has an a–hole about him that you have to have,” Harrison said. “And he’s not afraid to give it to the coaches or players.”
Harrison vividly recalls his early days with the Patriots, and how his connection with Vrabel was forged amid conflict. As an intense, hard-hitting safety, Harrison brought a reputation from his nine years with the Chargers as an over-aggressive player. His first training camp with the Patriots in 2003 was marked by dustups with offensive teammates.
“I got into fights because I was hitting Troy Brown and Kevin Faulk when I came in, and they were all over me,” Harrison remembers. “Mike Vrabel came up to me and said, ‘F-them! Keep playing the way you play,’ and walked away. I was the new guy coming in, everybody is fighting mad at me and that’s what he tells me.”
‘These guys have trusted Mike Vrabel, and they’re in the Super Bowl’
No doubt, Vrabel has found ways to connect with a new generation of Patriots players. That he has instilled a new culture – or brought back the old Patriot Way culture in some ways – was obviously the objective after Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired Jerod Mayo after just one season as Bill Belichick’s successor and replaced one ex-linebacker with another as coach.
After all, Vrabel, the NFL Coach of the Year for a second time after he previously won in 2021 during his six-year tenure with the Tennessee Titans, is already established as one of the league’s best coaches.
Yet even Vrabel’s former teammates probably would not have predicted that this trek back to the Super Bowl for the Patriots would happen so fast. While the team added some key newcomers this season – including Stefon Diggs, Harold Landry III and Milton Williams – the team that won the AFC title includes 23 players who were part of a 2024 team that posted the franchise’s second consecutive 4-13 finish.
“Let me tell you how hard it is to get trust in one year: It’s tough,” Harrison said. “It’s hard to come in and change the culture. It’s hard to come in and get to these veteran players who are stuck in a certain mindset. I mean, it’s easy to have a defeated mindset.
“Mike’s come in and gotten rid of people, and he’s also added a lot of positivity. He’s speaking into the players’ lives. He cares about these guys and that’s why they are playing the way they play. Sometimes, it’s not about an easy schedule, it’s not about X’s and O’s, it’s about believing in one another and the cause. This is a perfect example of it. These guys have trusted Mike Vrabel, and they’re in the Super Bowl.”
Just like some key Patriots players might have envisioned a generation ago.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell
