Karen Guregian: The inside story behind Mike Vrabel’s Sunday ritual

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Every Sunday night, particularly during the football season, Mike Vrabel keeps to the same ritual.

At some point after the Patriots game, he calls or texts one of the important influences in his life, the man who was his high school football coach at Walsh Jesuit High School (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio).

Gerry Rardin not only coached Vrabel, he was also his Spanish teacher at the school.

Thanks to Vrabel spending last year with the Cleveland Browns, the two reconnected and spent a lot of time together golfing and reminiscing.

Heading into his first Super Bowl as a head coach, Vrabel remains faithful to people who have influenced him in his life. And Rardin, who coached 35 years at Walsh Jesuit, sits near the top of the list.

“It doesn’t matter if Mike’s in Miami, or if he’s coming home from somewhere, we’ll either text for a while, or he’ll call,” Rardin said. “It’s been amazing.”

Speaking with MassLive in a hallway in the lower reaches of the San Jose Convention Center prior to Monday’s Super Bowl Opening Night festivities, Vrabel smiled at the mention of Rardin’s name.

He talked about why it’s important for him to keep connected with his former coach.

“Gerry made an impact on a lot of people. And Gerry always put the team and our school before himself and his family,” Vrabel said. “I didn’t recognize that at the time. I was a loudmouth high school kid.”

Following the Patriots AFC championship win over Denver, Vrabel and Patriots director of sports performance Frank Piraino, who also attended Walsh Jesuit a few years after Vrabel, made sure to get a hold of Rardin.

Piraino called first.

“Frank was back at the hotel room. He said the flight’s been cancelled. So he and Mike were headed to some steakhouse next door,” Rardin said. “Mike and Frank have been so great about keeping in touch. It’s really neat. We were laughing and joking a lot that night.”

Rardin would have been a guest of Vrabel and Piraino at the Super Bowl, but recently underwent hip replacement surgery.

“We went back and forth about that,” Rardin said. “But I told them this won’t be it (for the Super Bowl). There will be others. And Mike said: ‘Yup, you got it.’’’

And, win or lose, Vrabel will be sure to touch base following the showdown with the Seattle Seahawks.

“Gerry’s tough. He’s fought against some battles with cancer, and (his hip replacement),” Vrabel said. “He’d be here if it wasn’t for that.”

Vrabel played defensive end, linebacker, and some tight end for Rardin before earning a scholarship to Ohio State. It’s no wonder Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels utilized him at tight end on the goal line.

Rardin told a story that illustrated Vrabel’s love of football and desire to play every game.

During Vrabel’s junior year, Rardin indicted the Patriots coach played with fractured vertebrae. Doctors thought his career was done.

“He had to wear a brace that went from his chin to his waist. And he could not get in a 3-point, or 4-point stance at all,” Rardin said. “So he had to play up all the time because he had some fractured vertebrae that two football doctors said your career is done.

“But he finally found one doctor at the Cleveland Clinic that said ‘I’m going to put you in this brace, and I think you’re going to be OK.’

“Mike played in that thing. I don’t see how he moved around at all, but he amazed everybody. He wasn’t going to let that stop him.”

As for Vrabel’s success as a head coach, going to the AFC Championship with the Tennessee Titans, and now the Super Bowl with the Patriots, Rardin isn’t surprised. He believes he knows his former pupil’s secret.

Vrabel is true to who he is.

“The best coaches never try to be anybody else. Just be yourself. And I think that’s something he has mastered,” Rardin said. “Mike doesn’t change. Mike has been the same guy that he was when he was in my 9th-grade Spanish class and on my teams at Walsh Jesuit.

“He’s as genuine, and hard-working … and one of the funnest people to be around that I’ve ever had. It’s uncanny how Mike can get people to buy in, and that’s exactly what he does.

“Those of us who know Mike, though, we don’t think it’s all that shocking. You were happy he was in your class because it made that class all that much more enjoyable.”

Asked if Vrabel majored in wisecracks when he was in high school, Rardin laughed before answering: “Oh my gosh, yeah.”

That prompted another story, and memory. Rardin said after school, when he went down to his football office, he’d be greeted by Vrabel.

“I’d see Mike in my chair, with his feet up on the desk. I’d yell at him, give him crap,” Rardin said. “But three years later, he was down at Ohio State, and I went down there for practice, and he was in then-head coach John Cooper’s office with his feet up on the damn desk doing the same thing. He’s just not different at all.”

Rardin is touched that Vrabel still remembers things his former coach would say to the team, and the impact it had on him.

Vrabel tries to treat his players the same way Rardin did.

“He would talk about his relationships with players. And he wanted to make sure I understood that he saw that with me when I coached him,” Rardin said. “He’d make comments like that. And it would make me feel awful good. He remembers the things that had an impact on him.”

Walsh Jesuit High’s nickname is the Warriors, which has some resonance with the Patriots.

They’ve made a point of hailing their “road warrior” mentality, especially after posting a 9-0 record away from home.

At one point, Vrabel showed the team a clip of the 1979 film “The Warriors.” It’s become their mantra ever since.

While it might not be an homage to his high school, having Vrabel shout “Warriors” after every win still gives the school, and many of those who attended the Ohio school, a thrill.

“When he started smiling and yelling that Warriors thing the other night, I swear to God I’ve seen that same look and that same yell before. It’s exactly like he was when he was in school,” Rardin said. “Or when he first started coaching.

“He’s going to enjoy the moment. He’s going to enjoy the people around him. And that made me smile. He’s just being Mike.”

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