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Patriots HC Mike Vrabel has no ill will toward friend Tom Brady about having no 'dog in the fight' for Super Bowl LX

NFL.com · Grant Gordon · 2026-08-16T19:09:27+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Patriots HC Mike Vrabel has no ill will toward friend Tom Brady about having no 'dog in the fight' for Super Bowl LX Mike Vrabel won three Super Bowls with Tom Brady. He’s not blaming TB12 for losing his last one. Addressing Brady’s provocative comments before the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl LX loss to the Seattle Seahawks that he “didn’t have a dog in the fight” or if Brady could have spoken to Seattle coach Mike MacDonald before the game, Vrabel shrugged off either having any kind of negative effect on the Pats. Vrabel, who won a trio of Super Bowls as a linebacker for New England with Brady playing quarterback, assumes Brady spoke with Macdonald before last season’s Super Bowl. After all, Brady is a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, who hired Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as their head coach. “Probably, he hired his offensive coordinator,” Vrabel said recently on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show when asked if he thought Brady and Macdonald had discussions before February’s game. “That’s not why we lost the game. We talk to a lot of people. There’s a lot of film; it’s not why we lost the game. I don’t know. I’m sure they talked, he hired his offensive coordinator.” Before the big game, it had been reported Kubiak was expected to be hired as the Raiders' head coach. That’s not the reason Brady was leading the pre-game news cycle, though When Brady’s Let’s Go! Sirius XM podcast co-host Jim Gray asked the Patriots great, who had a statue erected outside of Gillette Stadium less than a year earlier, which team he’d be pulling for, Brady offered no rooting interest. “I don’t have a dog in the fight in this one. May the best team win,” said Brady, who won six Super Bowls with New England and another with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “And in terms of the Patriots, this is a new chapter in New England, and I'm glad everyone's embraced the Mike Vrabel regime, all the amazing players that have worked so hard to get their club to this position. We did it for 20 years. There was a little bit of a hiatus in there, but the Patriots are back and it's a very exciting time for everyone in New England.” RELATED CONTENT The comments irked Patriots players current and past. Brady offered up a mea culpa of sorts when he later posted a picture of himself and Patriots owner Robert Kraft that was captioned, “Get that seventh ring so we can match.” Regardless, Vrabel holds no ill will to Brady, who is also a FOX color commentator in addition to holding ownership stake in the Raiders. “No. I mean, clearly Tom’s gone out of his way to make it known that he’s trying to, you know, he has a new job and a new role and, you know, it is really, what it is,” Vrabel said. “Tom’s a friend, he’ll always be a friend, he’s a former teammate, but, I mean, he’s made it clear, I’m doing something new now.” Have the two talked since the Patriots’ loss? “Since the Super Bowl? Yeah probably, I mean text,” Vrabel said. The Patriots open their 2026 season in the NFL Kickoff Game in a Super Bowl rematch with the host Seahawks on Sept. 9. Roughly a month later, the Patriots will be at home when they host the Raiders. Though Brady hasn’t played for the Patriots since Jan. 4, 2020, he’s still likely to figure into some pregame storylines for the squad.