On Sunday, the Patriots dropped their fifth consecutive home opener, losing to the Raiders 20-13 in Mike Vrabel’s first regular season game as head coach in New England.
The offense stagnated in the second half, and the secondary allowed players like Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers to have huge days at Gillette Stadium.
But amidst all the juicy storylines coming out of Sunday, you just knew WEEI’s Chris Curtis had to ask Vrabel about Bill Belichick’s postgame comments from Saturday when the Patriots head coach joined The Greg Hill Show for his weekly “Patriots Monday” appearance.
Before we get to Vrabel’s response, here’s the clip of Belichick, in case you’ve somehow been able to avoid this video in your feed over the last 36 hours:
“It’s clear that I’m not welcome around their facility, and so they’re not welcome in ours,” Belichick said Saturday when asked for comment on the multiple media reports of his North Carolina football program banning New England scouts from Tar Heel practices.
That’s a lofty claim made by the six-time Super Bowl champion about his former organization, one he spent 24 years with as the architect of the greatest dynasty in the history of the NFL. And with team chairman and CEO Robert Kraft telling WBZ-TV on Wednesday that he plans to one day add a Belichick statue next to the Tom Brady statue in Enel Plaza outside Gillette Stadium, it feels like one side of this feud is willing to extend the olive branch and move on.
“Is Bill Belichick welcome here, and were you surprised that he didn't allow the scouts onto campus to scout his players?” Curtis asked Vrabel on Monday.
“Nothing surprises me,” said Vrabel. “I would imagine that Bill - I mean, he came back for, the best of my knowledge, Tom’s [Patriots Hall of Fame] ceremony. So I guess he's welcome back, based on the fact that he was there.
“So I'll just go by that. Since his departure as the head coach here, he's been back. And I'll leave it at that.”
“Has he maybe been out shopping or something at Patriot Place, and not allowed to walk in [some stores]?” WEEI’s Greg Hill joked. “Does his key card still work?”
“Well, no - when you get fired, the key card does not work,” said Vrabel. “I tried it. I went back to Tennessee, it doesn’t work. The fingerprint doesn’t work, the key card doesn’t work. That’s how it happens.”
Monday was the second time in four days Vrabel was asked about his former head coach, fielding questions during Friday’s post-practice press conference about the initial reports of the Belichick ban coming out of Chapel Hill.
“That's an individual choice,” Vrabel said on Friday. “And we'll cross that bridge when we start looking at players.
“Wanna focus on our football team, and that's their prerogative to make the decisions that they feel like are best for them. And then we’ll have to find other ways to get the information for any players that we want to look at in North Carolina.”
Regardless of this game Belichick is trying to play with the Patriots, Vrabel is clearly unwilling to play ball. It’s clear the 50-year-old head coach understands there’s a lot more important things to worry about with his team at 0-1 to start the season.
Let’s see if the 73-year-old head coach starts to adapt that same mentality once he realizes having as many NFL scouts around your facility as possible is exactly what potential recruits and transfers want when choosing where they’ll play their college ball.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.