Arguably, the biggest game in college football every year is the Michigan vs. Ohio State battle in the Big Ten Conference. And this year, the rivalry, which is usually referred to ubiquitously as “The Game,” is as big as ever. It’s no wonder both sides brought out their famous alumni to support, as former Wolverine Tom Brady appeared for the Big Noon Kickoff on Fox.
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From 2012-2019, Ohio State won eight straight matchups. But since then, it’s been all Michigan. They had won four in a row going into Week 14’s showdown at The Big House in Ann Arbor. The Buckeyes were No. 1 in the nation at 11-0, but the Wolverines were no slouches either, entering at 9-2 and No. 15 in the country.
With those kinds of stakes for both sides, the schools had to pull out all the stops. Michigan and Fox got Brady to come on their Big Noon pregame show, but unfortunately, his former teammate Rob Gronkowski set him up to tell a pro-Buckeyes story.
Apparently, early in Brady’s career, he’d lost a bet to linebacker and Ohio State alum Mike Vrabel that forced him to wear Buckeyes red during practice for a week.
“Okay, it was the ugliest jersey I’ve ever put on,” Brady said with a laugh. “And coincidentally, the day that I wore it to practice, that was the worst day of practice I’ve ever had in my life. That’s not a coincidence. That color did not treat me well.”
Brady did not enjoy the experience, to say the least. And for those that don’t believe it until you see it, we’ve got you covered, too. Images from said practice show Brady wearing not just a red Buckeyes jersey, but Mike Vrabel’s own No. 94.
— Big Noon Kickoff (@BNKonFOX) November 29, 2025
It’s a good thing Brady didn’t make that bet with Vrabel a habit: the Buckeyes won seven of the eight editions of “The Game” while the pair were New England Patriots teammates from 2001-2008. Michigan leads the overall series 62-51-6.
Vrabel and Brady won three Super Bowls together, but after the 2008 campaign, they went their separate ways. Brady continued on in Foxborough, where he spent another decade building his GOAT resume. Vrabel, meanwhile, moved on to the Kansas City Chiefs, with whom he finished out his NFL career in 2009-2010.
The tale of Brady and Vrabel was far from finished, however. Vrabel went on to become a prominent coach, and earned his first head coaching post with the Tennessee Titans in 2018.
Early in Brady’s final Super Bowl season in New England, Vrabel’s boys handed the Pats a rousing 34-10 regular-season defeat. The next year, Vrabel twisted the knife even further: Vrabel’s Titans beat New England 20-13 in the 2019 Wild Card playoffs, giving TB12’s legendary career in New England a quite ignominious end.
So Mike Vrabel goes down as not only one of Brady’s greatest Patriots teammates—and one of the few that was able to beat him in anything, “Go Buckeyes”—but also the guy who ended Brady’s career in New England. And now he’s the head coach who is leading the Patriots out of the darkness of the post-Brady doom and into the light. Quite the resume.
