A Tale of Two Coaches
New videos of Mike Vrabel and Bill Belichick coaching their teams this week
Last week there were two videos released on social media that got my attention. (I know, down week for social media as they only had two noteworthy videos.) Or maybe I should say only two videos peaked my interest enough to warrant column inches in The Notebook.
One features Patriots coach Mike Vrabel outlining his rules for his team. Now, I don’t know exactly how this video made its way to being public. It wasn’t put out by the team, but was clearly in a team meeting during the Patriots’ offseason program. If it wasn’t put out via official team channels, who had access and the ability to film this?
Putting distribution aside for now, the content of this meeting is exactly what you want to hear uttered to a Patriots team that is where they are right now. Last year we heard that guys were riding bikes in the locker room and it seemed that Jerod Mayo was hellbent on showing everyone how opposite of Bill Belichick he was. (Though honestly, I think lasting one horrendous season with zero success and screwing up the perfect draft position makes that point pretty clear on its ownself.)
In this clip, his first official address of the team, Coach Vrabel is making expectations clear from a day to day, behavioral stand point. And while I think it is tough to be a hard-ass coach in professional sports these days, I don’t think Vrabel’s requests are unreasonable or restrictive of his players. The prominent message is respect. Respect of other peoples time by being punctual. Respect for coaches by not wearing your hood during meetings. And probably most importantly, respect for all the staffers and organizational personnel who will help them on a daily basis.
John Madden made things very easy for his Oakland Raider teams, he only had 3 rules.
1. Be on time
2. Pay attention
3. Play like hell on Sunday
But I’m sure if cell phones had existed and hoods had been in fashion, Coach Madden would have addressed those issues as well.
The other video that got my attention this week, was this one of UNC Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick, coaching up players at spring practice.
I think this was the first time that Bill Belichick has been mic’d up since probably 2005. Once he won his 3rd Super Bowl, we never got this kind of access again. Any of the inside stuff we got was either from his A Football Life episode from 2009, or archived footage from Bill’s first year’s in New England. (“Run it again, Brady!” has been used so many times that if the Coach got paid royalties for it, he’d probably make more from it than Jerry Seinfeld makes from The Contest episode.)
Aside from Coach Belichick wearing a wireless microphone, which in and of itself show to me that he understands in this new world he’s gotten into, that you need to be more participatory in the overall venture than he has been for the past couple of decades.
But to me the content was great to see, Bill Belichick seemed to be enjoying himself. He’s out there teaching the game to players and in the end, I think that’s what he has always loved about football. In the NFL we saw it in glimpses; each year there would be a clip or a picture of him at some obscure pro-day like DeVry or Pierre’s School of Cosmetology, and Bill would be out there in a driving rain, showing an offensive line prospect correct hand positioning during pass blocking.
One of the reasons that I think Back to School 2: Bill Belichick’s Triple Lindy will work is that in the end, it’s about teaching football. Does that mean he’ll stay in college for the rest of his career? No, the siren song of the NFL and the Shula record could always ring out, but if it doesn’t, I think Bill will be okay because its about football, regardless of the level.
These two videos jumped out to me for obvious reasons if you’ve been a reader of the Notebook for any amount of time. I’ve never made a secret for my admiration for these two coaches and as strange as the last year-plus has been around Foxborough, I’m glad to see that both coaches seem to be in good positions for the 2025 season.
I’ll be back next week with my annual Patriots Draft preview, so make sure you subscribe to The Sterling Notebook and for my paid subscribers, you’ll not only get the Notebook delivered directly to your inbox, but you’ll also get my Rapid Reaction videos sent to you as major Patriots news happens. (Like whatever the Patriots do with the #4 pick.) Last year I started sending them after every game, coach firing, hiring and important free agent signing. Because when something big happens, don’t you want a selfie video from yours truly, taken from wherever I happen to be? (Vrabel was hired as I was shoveling the deck, it’s not a pretty video, but you’ve got to give the people what they want, gotta give em what they need!)