Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel used Tom Brady’s message against him.
Vrabel told ESPN’s Dianna Russini that he watched Brady’s pregame video prior to the Titans-Patriots AFC wild-card game, and he said Brady referencing himself as a lion and others as hyenas played right into the message he had been conveying to his team.
Vrabel, who had previously dubbed the Titans “street rats,” said the hyena depiction fit the bill perfectly.
“We were street rats, I used to call them street rats,” the former Patriot told Russini in the video, which you can watch below. “And then I woke up before the playoff game against the Patriots and Tom, my good friend Tom Brady, put out a really cool Instagram, Facebook, whatever he’s on, post of him being this lion or something and then these hyenas. And I’m like, you know what? That’s a great compliment. Because that’s what we want to be. We want to be hyenas. We want to be street rats that live in the jungle that hunt in packs, as a team.”
The Titans have been incredible on the road the last 3 games, rushing for 663 and giving up just 39 points. Mike Vrabel and his Titans aren’t paying attention to any of it but heading into Arrowhead the mindset is don’t change now! #Titans pic.twitter.com/dT2cTvIhVa
— Dianna (@diannaESPN) January 16, 2020
It clearly fueled the fire for the Titans, who advanced past the Patriots with a 20-13 win. Tennessee has marched on as the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoffs by taking down the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens in a one-sided contest to clinch a spot in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
It seems the hyenas are the ones who are laughing now.
