00:00Is this the hottest clickbait take that you have seen in a long time,
00:04or is there any merit to this?
00:06So USA Today put out an article in their giant colors
00:10and huge, like, 95 font that a toddler can read,
00:14and it said the article was coaches on the hot seat,
00:18NFL coaches on the hot seat.
00:19And at number 10, so the top 10, and at number 10 is Mike Vrabel.
00:25And let me just read you what they say, okay?
00:27This is a guy, once again, went to the Super Bowl last year,
00:30in his first year, Mike Vrabel.
00:32It says, rather atypical to include a man who just sparked a turnaround for the team.
00:36He just won three rings as a player,
00:38elevating the Pats from last place in the AFC East to 2024 Super Bowl 60 entry
00:42during his first year and deservedly winning Coach of the Year honors
00:45in his second light of his effort.
00:46Yet, Vrabel's overexposed off-field relationship with former NFL reporter Diana Rossini
00:51has created a bizarre off-season for the defending AFC champs,
00:54the coach even missing part of the NFL draft to spend time with his family.
00:58And while the Patriots have given no indication, Vrabel is on thin ice.
01:02Off-field distractions can only be tolerated for so long,
01:05particularly if the product on the field begins to suffer,
01:07or if it's what's been a loyal locker room to Vrabel loses its faith in him.
01:13Is that the hottest take in the history of hot takes, clickbait?
01:17Or is that something that you find legit?
01:19I think it's actually somewhat, I don't expect anything to happen.
01:23However, given everything that we heard there for a stretch,
01:27that Mike Tomlin was reportedly like, you know, available if they needed to pivot,
01:31I mean, I don't know how much merit there was to that either.
01:34However, there always could be new information that comes up,
01:37which would lead to a disastrous situation.
01:39It's a minute possibility, but I guess if you're going to put him 10th,
01:42I really don't have a problem with that.
01:45There is a slim chance that Vrabel, something else will come out that we're not aware of,
01:49and they'll have to move on, you know?
01:51It'd have to be something pretty damning, I think, for that to happen.
01:54I just don't.
01:55Robert Kraft's recently on record saying,
01:59Sweetheart, I know for a fact he's going to be my coach.
02:02He doesn't want, are you kidding me?
02:04He's gotten a taste of the good old days.
02:07Well, no, it would be a leave of absence from Vrabel,
02:10not that the team would fire him.
02:11It's the way I envision it.
02:12Like, some other problem comes up, but he's like,
02:14I'm stepping away for the betterment of the team.
02:16Now, maybe that doesn't qualify in the list that you're talking about, Rich.
02:19No, no, no, because their justification is that, like,
02:21if they started, like, if they lost the locker room because of this, he hasn't.
02:25They love Mike Vrabel.
02:26You can tell at practice.
02:27I don't see any signs of it.
02:29No.
02:29And a matter of fact, I think that the Rossini story is done until she says something.
02:34It's like, I don't, there's nothing that's going to change.
02:37And it's now at the point where if they mention it,
02:39like, on Sunday or on the opening night,
02:42like, I'm going to be like, there was no need to do that.
02:45You've already talked about it.
02:46Were you surprised the Hall of Fame game did it?
02:48I am.
02:48I am a little surprised because it would have made more sense
02:51if they waited to talk about it until week one
02:53because the Patriots were playing.
02:55Exactly.
02:55That's why it was shocking.
02:56The Patriots weren't in the Hall of Fame game yet.
02:58They're talking about that skin, which I found in.
03:00I'll tell you this, Rich.
03:01The only way I think it becomes a story, you get off to a slow start.
03:05Don't get off to a slow start.
03:06Don't go one and three.
03:07Don't have a Gonzalez holdout, you're saying?
03:09Don't have a Gonzalez holdout.
03:10Don't get blown out in the first week of the season.
03:13You know, like, have a competitive game against Seattle.
03:15You know what I mean?
03:16If you win, you're fine.
03:18You lose, that's when it comes up.
03:20So, Ted, does it become a story if they start losing?
03:22Absolutely.
03:23Will it cost him his job at the end of the year?
03:25No.
03:26Absolutely not.
03:27No.
03:27Exactly.
03:28The definition of being on the hot seat means you could get fired this season.
03:31You're right.
03:32And I think unless there's some unbelievable twist to this story where something like illegal
03:38or like wildly immoral happened, then they're not going to get rid of the guy.
03:45And you know what?
03:46It's the smart move not to.
03:47Now, I will say the question he was asked about the therapy yesterday before the practice.
03:52Get a little Ken Laird pivot.
03:54Ken Laird pivot.
03:54Wow.
03:55I mean, I took notes.
03:56That was a master class.
03:57Do we have any tap dancing music we can play underneath this?
04:00We got audio?
04:01I mean, I think it would be.
04:02It was actually, I didn't hear it like live.
04:04It was.
04:05It is like a.
04:06It was a pivot of all pivots.
04:08By the way, he's becoming the king of that, of not answering questions, like just like
04:12and giving you long answers.
04:15So at the end, you think he answered your question, but he actually just bored you so
04:18much that you forgot.
04:19Where did he learn that tactic from?
04:21I wonder, man.
04:22And you know what?
04:23And it's he is so long that nobody does a follow up to it.
04:26No.
04:26Yeah.
04:27No one calls him out on it.
04:28Right.
04:28It's true because you know that you're going to get another two minutes of just garbage.
04:31All right.
04:32Let me hear this because it is funny.
04:33Do you have them being asked about the counseling that he's been doing in the offseason?
04:38Do you happen to have that, Stiz?
04:39Of course I do.
04:40Is that a role?
04:41Yes.
04:42Yeah.
04:42You said this offseason that you were seeking counseling.
04:45I wanted to follow up on that and see what did you learn from that counseling?
04:49And is that how did you balance that personal commitment with getting ready for this season?
04:53Well, I think we always look at improvement, you know, as we talk about getting ready for
04:56the next season.
04:58We always look at improvement and ways that we can improve individually and how we can improve
05:03as a team.
05:06Sorry.
05:07I didn't mean to.
05:09We're always looking for improvement.
05:11You and Jen always looking for improvement in the offseason?
05:14He didn't say that.
05:16All right.
05:16Keep going.
05:17Keep going.
05:17Sorry.
05:18How we can improve as a team.
05:19And it's really critical that we continue to do that on and off the field.
05:24I believe in that.
05:25I believe in everything that we can do to help this football team, to help our coaches,
05:29to help myself and everybody else included.
05:32And how we, you know, this journey that we're going to go on, you know, is going to be
05:36completely different than the one we went on last year.
05:39And that's all of our jobs is to prepare for it now.
05:42So really focused on our improvement individually and as a team.
05:46And that's something that we can do today.
05:48Halfway down.
05:49It's so good.
05:50Talk about them and their ability to play together as a unit.
05:53There's so many combination blocks that they're involved in.
05:56And we have to be better.
05:57And again, five-o-linemen have to be able to sustain them.
06:01Oh, my God.
06:02I just walked into that meeting room and said, how do we improve?
06:05How do we improve our combination blocks?
06:07I'm not asking you to block everybody one-on-one.
06:09It's not counseling.
06:10So I think we all have areas that we can improve on.
06:13And that includes the coaches.
06:15Yep.
06:16And that's what I love about counseling.
06:19That clears that up.
06:19I got to say, I got this vision of like, in the movie Airplane, it'd be like, it's like
06:24if they flash to everybody in the audience, they're like, you know, falling asleep or they're
06:28like killing themselves or like, they're self-mutilating themselves, dude.
06:37Oh, my God, Mike.
06:38How great would it be if just one of the reporters in the middle of one of those two-minute
06:42rants
06:43about nothing just went, you're not answering my question.
06:46Dude, they'd be my hero if they did.
06:49Oh, my gosh.
06:50Honestly, it's impressive.
06:51You're right.
06:52Like, I don't remember him last year doing this this much.
06:54But it seems ever since he started taking questions, you know, like the draft and anyone
06:59has it, it's just the most amazing, look this way now, look this way.
07:04What does that tell you?
07:05Like, can a guy that doesn't feel confident or, I don't know, or if a guy felt like he still
07:12needed to navigate that, would he answer it like that?
07:15Or is that a guy that's like, dude, this isn't even an issue.
07:19I'm still the badass here.
07:21I can, I'm going to answer it by not answering it like in the filibuster for three minutes
07:25to put you to sleep.
07:26Yeah, it's kind of badass.
07:27It's a little disrespect, like in a way, you know.
07:29Because he doesn't even like pause or allow it to be awkward.
07:31He jumps in right away and then takes the baton and he just starts running down with a different
07:36answer, you know.
07:37I think the longer the answer, the more in his head it turns into a FFU, FFU, FFU for
07:44asking me the question, FFU.
07:45He got off the stage, went behind, behind the curtain, stretch was there and he's, they
07:49probably had a good laugh about that, you know.
07:52Yep, yep.
07:52I got him.
07:53Got him.
07:54I got him.
07:55Combination blocks.
07:55At some point, he's asked about how therapy's going.
07:58Right.
07:58He ends it with combination block talk.
08:00Even Belichick's got to be, damn, that's good.
08:02It's like taking notes on Framer.
08:04Absolutely.
08:04Absolutely.
Comments