Prior to Mike Vrabel agreeing to become the New England Patriots next head coach, it sounds like the Las Vegas Raiders were never in play for Vrabel.
Tom Pelissero said on Sunday that Vrabel was never in contention out in Las Vegas for the Raiders head coaching vacancy, despite efforts by former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who is now a minority owner in Las Vegas, to potentially bring Vrabel to the desert.
Instead, Vrabel apparently told Brady that things were pointing to him landing in New England, which ended up becoming official on Sunday.
“The most rumored landing spot for Mike Vrabel for months was with the Las Vegas Raiders, considering they have his old friend and teammate Tom Brady now there as the minority owner,” said Pelissero on NFL Game Day Sunday morning. And, in fact, running their current head coaching search.”
“My understanding is the Raiders never requested an interview or tried to bring Mike Vrabel in because Vrabel essentially told Tom Brady, ‘I’m going to end up going back to New England.’ Other teams were aware that was the likely landing spot for Mike Vrabel for quite some time.”
Pelissero reiterated a previous report that Vrabel’s visit to the team in 2023 during Tennessee’s bye week when he was inducted into the Patriots’ Hall of Fame apparently didn’t sit well with Titans’ ownership.
That ultimately factored into him being let go at the end of that season. However, after working as an advisor in Cleveland, he became available, and Tennessee’s loss ultimately turned out to be New England’s gain.
“I’d also point this out, when you think about why Mike Vrabel was available today, there were a lot of factors in 2023 in Tennesee,” explained Pelissero. “But one of them was during the bye week, when he went to New England, was inducted into the ring of honor, made comments to the crowd about, ‘Enjoy this, because it’s not like this everywhere else,’ and sat wearing his ring of honor jacket next to Robert Kraft in the box.”
“Those things did not sit well with the Titans. He ends up getting fired, spends a year away, and now he lands in New England.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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