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Bill O’Brien recalls first time he saw Mike Vrabel in chest pads while coaching
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- Bill O’Brien recalls first time he saw Mike Vrabel in chest pads while coaching
Bill O’Brien and Mike Vrabel are both in New England now, but just over a decade ago, the pair were adjusting to new roles in Houston .
O’Brien, now the head coach at Boston College, was in his first season as head coach of the Texans, and Vrabel was in his first NFL coaching gig, working as the linebackers coach.
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In a story told to ESPN , that was the first time O’Brien saw Vrabel do something people are very familiar with now — putting on pads and telling the players to go full speed.
“I hadn’t seen that before,” O’Brien said. “We had just drafted (defensive end) Jadeveon Clowney (at No. 1 overall in 2014) and (Vrabel) came out to practice with a chest pad on. ... In any break in the action you’d look over and he would have Clowney, Whitney Mercilus , some veteran guys, and they would be setting the edge on his chest pad — full speed.
“You’d hear him: ‘Set the edge! Lock out! Bend your knees!’
Vrabel was beaten up after practice.
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“I remember calling him in and saying, ‘Mike, I don’t know if you can do this every single day. You’re going to be in the training room more than the players.’”
Vrabel set a similar tone with the Patriots early, even getting in the middle of a fight in the preseason. More recently, he tracked down Milton Williams’ after Williams sacked Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert late in the wild-card game. Vrabel came away with a bloody lip.
“He’s an excellent position coach,” O’Brien said. “He’s a big guy, he played, he was in great condition, and in addition to his intelligence, he could be physical with them and show them exactly what he wanted.”
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