Mike Vrabel Shares Thoughts on North Carolina Banning Patriots Staff From Program

On Thursday, North Carolina coach Bill Belichick's public-relations week went from bad to worse. Days after his team was humilated 48–14 by TCU in its opener, news broke that Belichick had barred all Patriots staff from scouting his team.

Naturally, reporters sought comment from New England coach Mike Vrabel—who played for Belichick on the Patriots from 2001 to '08. Vrabel was largely mum on Belichick's reported actions.

“That’s an individual choice and we’ll cross that bridge when we start looking at players,” Vrabel said during his Friday press conference. “I’m going to focus on our football team. That’s their prerogative to make the decision that they feel like is best for them and then we’ll have to find out the ways to get the information for any players that we want to look at from North Carolina.”

Much was made in the run-up to the Tar Heels' opener of Belichick's secrecy—unusual even for college football. North Carolina, for instance, practiced without uniform numbers and offered no depth chart for Monday's opener.

However, the coach seemingly going out of his way to block New England represents a new escalation in Belichick's war on his immediate past.