Mike Vrabel Calls Patriots' Super Bowl Loss to Seahawks a 'S--tty End' to 'Great' Season

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel provided an honest and succinct line about the end of his team's 2025 campaign, which resulted in a tremendous 14-3 regular season (a 10-win improvement from the year before) and an AFC title but a tough 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

Vrabel made his comments to reporters in Phoenix, where league meetings are taking place this week.

New England hired Vrabel, a former star Pats linebacker who won three Super Bowls with the team, as its new head coach last year. Vrabel had previously experienced success as the Tennessee Titans' head coach, and optimism reigned that he could turn the franchise around.

He certainly did that. The Pats went to work last offseason adding a bunch of new pieces on both sides of the ball, and those moves (plus the ascendance of MVP runner-up/quarterback Drake Maye) helped propel the team to much greater heights. Vrabel's strong leadership and guidance certainly played a role as New England won 13 of its final 14 games to earn the AFC's No. 2 seed.

The Patriots' dominant defense led to a pair of wins over the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos in the AFC playoffs.

However, the Seahawks crushed the Pats in the Super Bowl, rolling out to a 9-0 halftime lead and a 19-0 edge early in the fourth quarter. Seattle led by as many as 22 before ultimately winning by 16. The New England offense never got going until the fourth quarter, when it had a pair of 65-yard touchdown drives.

The present and future look awfully bright in town, though, with Vrabel and Maye leading the way. Their rebuild accelerated quickly after a pair of ugly back-to-back 4-13 seasons, and now the Pats look like perennial playoff contenders for the foreseeable future.