This article is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sport. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.
Luke Fickell is the head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers. He played and coached at Ohio State University and lived with Mike Vrabel. Vrabel is in his first season as the head coach of the New England Patriots.
Mike Vrabel is a desirable leader because he is never afraid to say what needs to be said.
I hosted him in 1992 when he visited Ohio State for his official recruiting trip. I’m a grade higher than her and nearly two years older than her. I think his parents sent him to school early because it was hell for him to stay at home. He finished his official visit with my ID. Maybe it was so I could get into my hometown bar in Akron, I don’t know.
I used to tease him because he is an only child and must be spoiled and soft. But he had that toughness. No matter what you thought of his ability, he played far above it. He could run with the defensive backs. He could lift with the linemen. He was able to compete and perform no matter what environment he was placed in.
There were times during conditioning and over the summer (at Ohio State) where the older guys and big guys were struggling and I just remember him jumping right over them. Hey, if your ass can’t keep up, we’re not waiting for you.
One year, we were in bowl practice and the offense kept trying to bring some play to his side and he kept yelling at our offensive coordinator, “You better not bring that play in here.” I remember being like, Hey, Vraves, shut up.. Leave me alone. But he was never afraid to say what he wanted to say.
You like people who are willing to say things people don’t want to hear. That’s what you have to do as a coach. That’s probably why he wasn’t named Ohio State’s captain. These tend to be popularity contests, and being honest doesn’t necessarily make you more popular. However, he was willing to speak his true feelings in any situation.
It didn’t matter to him whether you were friends with him or not. He holds everyone accountable and adheres to standards. He has a competitive spirit and it shows in everything he does.
We lived, struggled, and grew together for several years, just like any other college student. Perhaps he realized the depth of his competitive spirit during a wrestling match in his apartment. (Editor’s note: Fickell won the Ohio High School Wrestling Championship three times.) He wasn’t a wrestler. His father was a basketball coach and he grew up playing basketball. How can you be tough to play basketball? So he wasn’t going to beat me in wrestling, but I can promise you he wasn’t going to tap out and give in either. My roommate would have to stop us. It was always 2am.
You knew there was more to him than that.
He was a very sociable and sociable person by nature. It was easy to get to know him. I wouldn’t say he was easy to like, but he was easy to get to know. There was an irony in that. He was very resourceful and could guess the last word. It was a natural thing for him.
And I knew very well that if I ever needed anything, he would always be right there.
He always said he was going to become a coach like his father. When he was playing in the NFL, every time he signed a new contract, I called him and asked, “Are you still going to coach?” He always said yes.
When Ohio State named me interim coach in 2011, they allowed me to hire a defensive position coach. Vrabel had played 14 seasons in the NFL at that point, but he told me to give him a reason to retire.
I saw a lot of the “Patriot Way” in him as a coach: no one plays one position, be flexible. He must have learned a lot from Bill Belichick. But he also understood that he didn’t have to constantly outsmart and outsmart the other team. We had Joey Bosa at defensive end, so we didn’t have to come up with blitzes or move him around. I thought this was a good insight from someone new to the play and the system. He understood it on a deep level when he was just starting out.
In 2014, my first year as an assistant coach with the Houston Texans, I went to minicamp. That’s when I realized how well he connected with NFL players compared to other coaches. It’s a very important part of the NFL game.
His ability to connect with NFL players is unlike most coaches I’ve ever been around because he played at that level and even won a Super Bowl. He’s able to follow players and be critical and tough on players in a way that I find difficult for other coaches.
We often hear that better players are worse coaches. He had the ability to distinguish between what he could do and what others could do. He never thought anything was easy or that someone could learn it the same way he did. It can be difficult for a great player to understand that, but I’ve never seen anything like that in him.
After the Tennessee Titans fired him in 2024, he told me he wasn’t done coaching yet. He wanted to put himself in a position where people knew he wasn’t going to be a broadcaster or anything. That’s when he went to the Cleveland Browns as a consultant for the 2024 season. He wanted to go somewhere where he could learn and grow for his next opportunity. He wasn’t just going through the motions in Cleveland. He is one of those guys who is never satisfied.
Things will work themselves out. I wasn’t surprised he got another head coaching opportunity in New England, and I’m not surprised he’s already had success. It’s the same leadership I saw 30 years ago.
—As told by Justin Williams