Now that the New England Patriots have lined up Mike Vrabel to be their next coach, how about they make it their next goal to stop being such a bleep show?
Can we agree that’s what the Patriots have become in recent years? They’ve dissolved into a chaotic, two-left-feet, bottom-of-the-barrel organization, from the play on the field to this grim quest to get owner Robert Kraft into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It was just last week that Kraft, speaking with the media the day after he fired one-and-done coach Jerod Mayo, spoke in terms of how he’s at heart a “fan,” and that, “We don’t own this team. It’s owned by the fans of this region. We’re custodians of a very special asset of the community. That helps me try to make decisions that, if it was just personal, it would be different.”
Tedy Bruschi pressures Robert and Jonathan Kraft to “fix the organization” and hire Mike Vrabel. pic.twitter.com/UIDeWGSVl5
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 11, 2025
Let’s talk about that. While it’s true Kraft is a sports franchise owner whose fan credentials are neither manufactured nor embellished — he was a longtime season ticket holder back in the aluminum-bench days of Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium — the reality is that fans (and sportswriters!) are not necessarily the people you want at the top of the masthead. Oh, make no mistake: It’s lovely if the owner of your team is a real fan. In the end, though, you want a fan who happens also to have business savvy. And a big part of business savvy is hiring the right people for the right job. The late Larry Lucchino provided annual master classes on this technique during his years running the Red Sox, and Kraft made a history-making personnel decision 25 years ago when he wrested Bill Belichick from the New York Jets to coach the Patriots.
Not to disrespect Kraft and his fanhood, but he is a businessman by practice, and for a good number of years he ran a good shop down there on Route 1.
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Patriots hire Mike Vrabel as next head coach
Times have changed. It all begins, I guess, with the team’s inability to see to it that Tom Brady remained their quarterback for as long as ol’ No. 12 wanted to hang around. He should have been to the Patriots what Derek Jeter was to the Yankees, what Ted Williams was to the Red Sox, what Bill Russell was to the Celtics, and so on.
But the Patriots’ current plight isn’t solely a product of waving goodbye to a still-serviceable Brady — still serviceable as in winning another Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Consider what happened in 2022 when Belichick, in his second-to-last year as head coach, made one of the biggest blunders of his career when he handed off the offense — and the nurturing of second-year quarterback Mac Jones — to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. Here were two longtime Belichick loyalists with next to no experience working on the offensive side of the ball. Belichick shouldn’t have done that, and Kraft, be it as a fan, a businessman or just a local guy with two eyes and an ability to read a resume, shouldn’t have let him.
That was three years ago. We all said the Patriots were “rebuilding.” Looking back on it, this is what was happening: The Patriots, organizationally, were falling apart.
Things kept getting worse. It was time for Kraft to make a change, and I write these words as someone who absolutely believes Belichick is one of the best coaches the NFL’s ever had. What followed was a news conference in which Kraft and Belichick shared a comically awkward hug, all this happening while the finishing touches were being put on the television miniseries “The Dynasty,” or, as I like to call it, “Kill Bill.”
And then Kraft hired Mayo to coach the Patriots. Disclosure: I loved that hire. But I didn’t look under the hood to do a deep dive into Mayo’s preparedness. Turns out Kraft didn’t, either. Even worse, the entire coaching staff was filled with first-year this and first-year that, as though football had just been invented.
Now look where the Patriots are. They’re coming off a second straight 4-13 season. They’re about to introduce yet another of their former players as head coach. With the exception of hitting a home run on quarterback Drake Maye, many of their draft picks in recent years have been swings and misses at soft stuff in the dirt. They played to lots of empty seats during their final two home games, reminiscent of the 1-15 Patriots of 1990.
Plus, karma bit the Patriots in the brass last season. As in the brass that sits in those fancy owners’ suites throughout the NFL. The television networks have been, shall we say, encouraged over the years to show endless cutaway shots of owners during their teams’ games, except that during the Pats’ 30-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 15 the obligatory owner shot revealed an agitated and somewhat animated Jonathan Kraft (Robert Kraft’s oldest son) reacting to a play late in the second quarter in which Antonio Gibson had been tackled for a loss of 5 on second-and-11.
Someone lip read this. Sure looks like Jonathan Kraft is frustrated by what’s happening down on the field. Shaking his head. Also, it appears he’s scrolling down some notes? pic.twitter.com/V0a9ZTsMNt
— John Zannis (@John_Zannis) December 15, 2024
Owners’ box shots are supposed to be happy and celebratory. That CBS stumbled into this particular shot was the biggest hint yet that a coaching change was going to be made.
It took a while — as in about an hour after the Patriots’ season-ending 23-16 victory over the Buffalo Bills — for the Patriots to announce Mayo was out.
And now it’s Mike Vrabel’s turn. For the sake of all Patriots fans, here’s hoping he knows what he’s getting into and isn’t blinded by the good old days when his linebacking prowess helped the Patriots to three Super Bowl victories. Remember when Vrabel would occasionally help out the offense by checking in for red zone pass-catching duty? His mere arrival on the line of scrimmage was practically a red flare shot into the sky that Brady was going to throw to him, and yet it almost always worked. Vrabel had 10 career touchdown receptions, which is eight more than wide receiver Tyquan Thornton had in parts of three seasons with the Patriots after being selected in the second round of the 2022 draft.
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Vrabel was announced in May 2023 as the latest player to be voted into the Patriots Hall of Fame. “I feel blessed,” he said that day. “I feel honored because I know the people, the contributors, the players, and the coaches that are in the Hall of Fame.”
Rereading Vrabel’s remarks brings to mind a scene in “The Godfather Part II” when Corleone family lawyer Tom Hagen pays a visit to imprisoned former capo Frank Pentangeli.
“Those were the great old days, you know?” says a nostalgia-fueled Pentangeli. “And we was like the Roman Empire. The Corleone family was like the Roman Empire.”
To which a disillusioned Hagen responds, “It was once.”
Vrabel should keep this in mind as he begins his new job with the Patriots. Everyone else should, too.
These Patriots are not those Patriots. They need to begin all over again, and with the mindset they’ve never won anything.
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(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
