DHL Dan CCLXXII - The Mike Vrabel Column

This week's Picked Up Pieces column focuses on first-year head coach of the Patriots Mike Vrabel:

The Patriots aren’t there quite yet, but they sure have the coaching part figured out with Mike Vrabel, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering when Bill Belichick can put UMass on the Tar Heels’ schedule to pick up a much-needed win . . .

⋅ We’re not going to get all Super Bowl silly on you. The Patriots have a lot of work to do and, realistically, are in no position to think any upcoming opponent is an easy win. New England is still a very young and flawed football team.

But the Patriots have the coach part figured out. They have Mike Vrabel.

Five games into this new regime, it’s pretty clear that Bob Kraft made a great move when he admitted Jerod Mayo was a mistake and switched to Vrabel at the end of Mayo’s single season as head coach in Foxborough.

It couldn’t have been easy. Kraft’s ego is bigger than Gillette’s new lighthouse, and he probably wanted to honor the commitment he made to Mayo and give the neophyte coach a second chance.

Taking shots at ownership - check!

Where Past Is Prologue

Shank has a few thoughts about the New England Patriots new head coach, and dates himself in the process:

Mike Vrabel is another former Patriot, but now they need to let go of the past and let him truly run the show

I love the past and am not an agent of change.

Just like the Patriots.

I have a land line in my 125-year-old house. Also a VCR, CD player, Rolodex, and weekly calendar where I scribble appointments and to-do lists. I have never Tik-Toked, still carry cash, and own shoes older than Globe Patriots beat reporter Nicole Yang.

I read printed newspapers, seven per day, and Monday those ink-stained rags featured these headlines:

“No surprise, Patriots turn to their past and hire Vrabel as next head coach,” The New York Post

“Vrabel is Returning to New England as Patriots Head Coach,” The New York Times

“Glory daze,” The Boston Globe

Beautiful. The Patriots love the past. They can’t let it go. They love anything and everything that reminds them of their great triumphs in the first two decades of this century.

The Patriots aren't the only ones that can't let things go...

Great Gameday Calls, By Dan Shaughnessy

Presented without comment:

Mike Vrabel about to forget everything he knows about football for the next 3 1/2 hours

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) November 11, 2018