How Mike Vrabel Curiously Side-Stepped Bill Belichick Questions

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel did a lot of speaking with Boston media Monday morning in Florida, including an exclusive that produced at least one eyebrow-raising reply.

Vrabel and the rest of the NFL’s group of head coaches is in Florida for the league’s annual meetings. So, too, are a handful of reporters who met with Vrabel early Monday morning. Before Vrabel sat down at the breakfast table with the local scribes, he had a quick check-in with one of the region’s predominant voices: 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Michael Felger.

Felger, who is finally back to work, landed a sitdown with the new head coach set to run during “Felger and Massarotti” on Monday afternoon. To promote that appearance, the Hub dropped a teaser during “Toucher and Hardy” earlier in the day.

Felger asked Vrabel about former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and let’s just say the new guy didn’t exactly have a ringing endorsement for his former boss.

“We talk. We haven’t talked in a little bit, but I know where to find him, and he knows where to find me,” Vrabel said when asked if he and Belichick were close and communicating.

Again, it doesn’t sound like the two are routinely checking in and meeting for lunch every month. That’s a long way from sharing the practice field for joint sessions in 2019 when Vrabel was still the Titans’ head coach. Maybe this is just his attempt to get those questions to stop, too.

An answer to a previous question about Vrabel being from Belichick’s coaching tree might be a tell.

“When you see me coach or see me interact, do you feel like I’m from that lineage?” Vrabel asked.

“No,” Felger replied.

“Me neither,” said Vrabel.

Vrabel then expanded on the idea: “I never worked for Bill Belichick as a coach. There were a lot of things I learned from his a player that I’ve used, but just like with Urban Meyer or just like with anybody else that I’ve worked for, I’ve tried to take those thing but do them in my own personality and my own style.”

Felger also asked whether Vrabel believed Belichick, who took the head gig at the University of North Carolina in December, should have a spot in the NFL.

“That’s not up to me. If I owned a team, I certainly wouldn’t be coaching one,” Vrabel said.

Pressed on whether he’d hire Belichick, Vrabel replied “We’d go through a process. There’s a process, there’s a hiring process.”

As The Sports Hub’s John Wallach noted during the clip shared on social media, “That’s a long way from ‘Hell yeah!'”

It is hard to fathom that Belichick’s reputation in the league does appear so tarnished at this point. However, a season or two of success in Chapel Hill could get him one more crack at the NFL. Here’s hoping it would be in the AFC East.

And if Vrabel has it his way, he’d probably rather not have to talk about Belichick until then.