Can Mike Vrabel's Titans add to the theory that Bill Belichik struggles against his protégés?

Mike Vrabel.
(Image credit: Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Will the student become the master?

It's a homecoming of sorts for Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel on Saturday. As a player, he donned the New England Patriots uniform for head coach Bill Belichik from 2001 to 2008 as a sharp-minded starting linebacker who contributed to three Super Bowl championships. But he'll now face his mentor in a playoff game in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Saturday evening when the Titans and Patriots clash at 8:15 p.m. E.T. on CBS.

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One of those losses includes a 34-10 stinker last season against the Titans, whose defense is also led by former New England assistant Dean Pees. Of course, the teams are completely different from what they were more than a year later, and New England wound up getting the last laugh anyway by winning their sixth title over the last two decades. But it's possible Vrabel and the Titans do have New England's number. Belichik will surely have some tricks up his cut-off hoodie sleeves that could revive the struggling Patriots, but don't expect Tennessee to go away quietly.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.