Belichick is Professing His Love for Mike Vrabel After a Season of Dragging Jerod Mayo

As the above clip would indicate, the greatest coach in Patriots history and the newest coach in Patriots history have had a relationship that could best be described as complicated. Which could be expected from two such strong personalities. Two roosters occupying the same hen house, competing to see who is the one true Cock of the Walk are naturally going to butt heads. This battle of wits, from the Wild Card playoff in 2019, explained here in Pro Football Focus play-by-play form:

… serves as the pluperfect example of the contentiousness between the two. 

There are others. It was always just accepted in the Boston media that after Vrabel was traded to Kansas City in 2009, that he was being punished for speaking out about how the players deserved a piece of the Patriots Place retail empire the Krafts had built. And that he was bitter and would never speak to Belichick ever again. But it was just three years later that he was coaching at Ohio State and reached out to his old boss to recommend he draft rugby player/special team specialist Nate Ebner. Which worked out pretty bloody well. 

So it was going to be interesting to hear Belichick's opinion on his former linebacker taking the job he got fired from right around this time last year:

"He prepares his teams well. They're very good at situational football. They're tough, they're competitive, they're smart, just like he was as a player. The teams he's coached and the positions he's coached follow very much in his playing style and his preparation style. So I love Mike. I love everything that he stands for as a football coach. I have a lot of respect for him and I know he'll do a great job."

Very interesting. Nothing less than unequivocal praise, respect, and dare we say it, even love. 

Which is even more interesting when you compare these comments to Belichick's when asked about his last former linebacker to take his old job:

This is how you leave no doubt how you feel about two people you once mentored. That you basically raised into manhood. In 2001, when free agency started at midnight on a Friday, Vrabel's phone rang at 12:00:01 and it was Belichick on the line, reciting chapter and verse of plays he'd made in Pittsburgh while buried deep on Dick Lebeau's defense. And the best free agent signing of the Dynasty era was born. Mayo was drafted 10th overall in 2008 became a perennial team captain, stayed with the team as a de facto coach when he was injured throughout the 2014 championship run. And was added to the coaching staff personally by Belichick. So the similarities are all there.

But the former is "loved." While the latter failed him. Actually made him "hurt for" and "feel bad for the players" that he also brought into the league. 

It's a classic case of a father feeling betrayed by one of his sons. A tale as old as time. Cain and Abel. The parable of The Prodigal Son. Denethor loving Boromir and hating Faramir in Lord of the Rings. Or The Suite Life, where Zach was OK but Cody was an obnoxious little shit. 

It's hard not to compare and contrast these two reactions to the last two former Pats players to take the head coaching job Bill perfected, and not come away thinking he feels betrayed by the way Mayo got the job last year. And now he feels like the empire he built is back in the best possible hands. If he loves Mike Vrabel, who are any of us to disagree?