Ohio State legend Mike Vrabel once joked he’d do anything for a Super Bowl. Seven years later, he’s coaching in one.
Some moments in football live forever not because they were planned, but because they felt honest.
Back in July 2019, long before Mike Vrabel ever stood on the sideline of a Super Bowl as a head coach, the former Ohio State linebacker appeared on Bussin’ With the Boys, the loose, locker room style show hosted by Taylor Lewan and Will Compton. The tone was casual. The jokes were exaggerated. The conversation went places most head coaches never allow microphones to reach.
At one point, the discussion turned to just how badly someone might want to win a Super Bowl.
That’s when an off-hand joke from Matt Neely, a Titans superfan and producer for the show, sparked a moment that would take on a life of its own.
Lewan: “Matt Neely (an assistant for the show) said he would cut off his d--- for a, uno, Super Bowl, and I said No I would not do that. Would you cut your d--- off for a super bowl?”
Vrabel: “Been married 20 years. Yeah, probably.”
Lewan: “You’ve got three?!”
Vrabel: “As a player…. You guys will be married for 20 years one day. You won’t need it.”
Lewan: “If you come home with a bag of ice, and Jen is like ‘Oh honey what did you do.’ I cut …my d--- off, we’re gonna win a Super Bowl, she’d be like ‘eh,’ or would she be upset?”
Vrabel: “She’d be like do you want me to do it? Do you want to do it now?”
At the time, it landed exactly as intended, a locker-room exaggeration, delivered with perfect comedic timing by a coach known for his blunt honesty. Vrabel was respected, competitive, and intense, but still very much a coach trying to push the Tennessee Titans toward relevance rather than championships.
The clip circulated. People laughed. It became one of those quotes that resurfaces every now and then, usually detached from context and always with a grin.
But time has a way of reshaping moments.
Just four months after that episode aired, Matt Neely passed away in October 2019 at the age of 31. For those who knew him, followed the podcast closely, or shared in Titans fandom, his death added a quiet weight to a moment that had once been pure humor. What started as his joke became part of football folklore. It’s a reminder that behind the laughs are real people, real lives, and moments that outgrow their original setting.
Now, almost seven years later, the story reads differently.
Vrabel is no longer joking from a podcast chair. He’s preparing to coach on football’s biggest stage.
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After moving on from Tennessee and eventually taking over as head coach of the New England Patriots, Vrabel has led the franchise back to the Super Bowl. In Super Bowl LX, New England will face the Seattle Seahawks, giving Vrabel a chance to do something he never quite managed with the Titans, reach the mountaintop as a head coach.
For college football fans, especially those who remember Vrabel as a relentless linebacker for the Ohio State Buckeyes, the arc feels fitting. The same edge and competitiveness that defined his playing days in Columbus have followed him through every stage of his career. The humor, the intensity, the willingness to say exactly what he means, it’s all still there.
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What once felt like a throwaway joke now reads like a snapshot of who Vrabel has always been. Someone who understands the absurdity of football culture, but also the cost of chasing greatness. Someone who knows championships demand everything, even if you can only joke about that truth in extremes.
But now, it also comes with context, memory, and meaning, and a Super Bowl sideline waiting at the end.
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