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With two minutes left in the AFC championship game against the Steelers, Mike Vrabel stood on the sideline by himself, warming his hands and legs by a portable heater. His teammates donned "AFC Champion" hats and mocked Pittsburgh fans by twirling white versions of terrible towels. But Vrabel's demeanor could be summed up in one word: joyless. Need two? Absolutely joyless. It was a Belichickian display of emotional control that signified one thing: Vrabel didn't think the Pats had won anything yet. "It's fun to come on the road and win," Vrabel said after the Pats beat the Steelers 41-27 and advanced to Super Bowl XXXIX. "But you can't think about anything like that when your job is to prepare to win the next one." If Tedy Bruschi channels Bill Belichick's defensive genius and Tom Brady represents the coach's cool demeanor, Vrabel is the player Belichick would have been. He's a linebacker who catches touchdown passes. He's a tight end who can rush the passer. If it weren't for the No. 50 on his jersey, he'd be impossible to label. "Not a lot of guys can be that versatile," says Pats linebacker Willie McGinest. "What really sets him apart is his intelligence." But don't assume that Vrabel's ability to explain the use of hippocampal gamma oscillations--the study of ridges in ventricles of the brain--means he's not an athlete. "Smart guys won't get it done on smarts alone," the 29-year-old says. "You might know where a play is going, but if you don't have the athletic skills to navigate and physically make something happen, you will be lost." Vrabel actually cringes when he hears talk about his brain, even if it's justified. He grew up in Akron, Ohio, the son of two high school principals. He enrolled at Ohio State as a premed major before eventually earning a degree in exercise science. And it was his big brain that helped Vrabel stick in the pros, after being taken by the Steelers in the third round of the 1997 draft. An All-America defensive end as a Buckeye, Vrabel was considered too small for NFL line play. But at 6'4", 261, he was ideally suited to play linebacker, and he immersed himself in learning the intricacies of the position: blitzing from a sprinter's stance, dropping into coverage, reading blocks from five yards behind the line of scrimmage. Says Belichick: "He does everything well that you want an outside linebacker to do." In fact, Vrabel usually finds himself in the middle of New England's biggest plays, on both sides of the ball. After joining the Pats as a free agent in 2001, he became one of Belichick's first twoway guinea pigs, lining up at tight end last season and catching a touchdown against the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. (He added two more TD receptions this season.) And that was Vrabel recovering a Jerome Bettis fumble midway through the first quarter of this season's AFC championship game. On the next play, Tom Brady hit Deion Branch for a 60-yard touchdown, putting New England up 10-0. Late in the second quarter, as Rodney Harrison was halfway through his 87-yard interception return for a touchdown, Vrabel punctuated Ben Roethlisberger's embarrassment by flattening the rook 40 yards downfield. "Second effort and hustle always seem to present Mike with opportunities to make big plays," says Pats linebacker Rosevelt Colvin. "He does that every day." But Vrabel's greatest gift isn't his head or his hustle, it's his freakishly long pair of arms, which helped him collect 5 sacks this season. They hang like vines, with his fingers reaching the top of his knees. When he locks them on a blocker and gains leverage, he'll use his rip move to speed right by. Against an Eagles team playing without its top tight end, Chad Lewis, and maybe its top wide receiver (three guesses), Vrabel isn't likely to be hanging back in coverage. He'll be attacking an offensive line that gave up more than two sacks a game during the regular season. Even if he doesn't get to Donovan McNabb, getting close could allow Vrabel's reach to disrupt the play. Exhibit A: Vrabel's pressure on Kurt Warner in Super Bowl XXXVI led to a Ty Law interception return for a touchdown. Those are the only times you'll find Vrabel in the spotlight. During the postgame ceremony in Pittsburgh, as his teammates gathered on a makeshift stage at midfield to get their hands on the Lamar Hunt Trophy, Vrabel kept his feet firmly planted on the field, his octopus arms shoved down his pants to keep warm. "Do I care about being recognized nationally?" Vrabel says. "No. I only care about being recognized and respected by teammates. If that happens, I'm happy." That, and one more win.
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