I'm the only nerd that remembers stuff like this but, Vrabel marked the unofficial beginning of the Pats dynasty. In Brady's first year as starter, the Jets were playing the Pats, leading and in total control. The whole game flipped on a Vinny Testaverde INT made by.....Mike Vrabel. The Pats went on to win the game and ultimately their first Super Bowl. I just remember that game being the first time I realized that this team is for real and they are going to be a problem.
Im sure you would also remember Vinny overthrowing a wide open Richie Anderson in the fourth quarter after NE grabbed the lead ….
Well, he was a cog in the wheel of that massive Cheats cheating machine as a player, so yeah. I will always think that this is hilarious, though. He out Belichiked Belichik, I think it was his second year as HC of the Titans. It was something he learned directly from Belichik when he was a player and also from observing BB's moves when he himself became a HC. Anyway, about a month previous, whatever the move was, Belichick pulled it out of his ass and used it against Harbaugh and the Ravens. Harbaugh screamed that it was illegal and pitched a fit. It wasn't, it was just alllllllll shades of gray. So moving along, the Titans play the Cheats, and Vrabel pulls that same play out of his own ass against Belchick to win the game. Belichick himself threw an apoplectic fit, even bigger than Harbaugh's, ran across the field and screamed at the refs, "He can't do that! He can't do that!" Yeah, the same play, that hump, the hump who also claimed not to know the rule book that well (!), particularly when it came to Spy Gate. Vrabel was laughing his ass off. I can't stand anything that has Patriots stink on it, including Vrabel, but that was delicious. Surely someone on here remembers this besides me.
Truly believe that Belichick would have been fired by Kraft that season if Brady did not get the chance to start. I was listening to Boston Sports Radio all the time and he was on the hot seat, big time after finishing 5-11 the year before and an 0-2 start.
You say that, except every qualified candidate has rejected interviews with the jets at both HC and GM for years leaving them with scraps, and currently they can’t even find DC to who wants to be here.
Yeah I remember that. I remember the rule as well - a dead-ball penalty committed on a running clock keeps the clock running, but resets the play clock (only if there are more than 5 minutes left in the game). So with 6 1/2 minutes left in the game on a running clock on fourth down, they kept having the punter false-start, then somebody else false-start, and ran the clock all the way down to 5 minutes basically without snapping the ball. It has to be a penalty the defense cannot decline, so illegal shift / procedure doesn't work - and it must be on a running clock, so delay of game doesn't count since it stops the clock. Vrabel seems to be really dialed in on the rules. Last night he exploited that to the hilt again with the substitutions - took his sweet time substituting players when the Broncos made the mistake of substituting with a running clock, so the referee didn't let Denver snap the ball until there were like 3 seconds left on the playclock, and I think that was the play Stidham threw the pick. Like it or not, command of the game and the rules is a sign of good coaching.
Kraft pretty clearly does not have a lot of patience with bad coaching. Pete Carroll made the playoffs in 1998, missed them in 1999 and he was fired. Mayo - one season, and done. I think if Kraft doesn't see what he wants to see in terms of staff cohesion, execution and performance - he is not shy in replacing everybody. What I wouldn't give for ownership with that amount of conviction.
