Mike Vrabel Did Not Look Happy After the Titans' Shocking A.J. Brown Trade
By Kyle Koster
The Tennessee Titans shocked the football world and their own fans by shipping All-Everything wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFL Draft trade on Thursday night. It was significant enough news for Adam Schefter to pause between bites of cake and see what that old phone was doing after so many hours unattended. And shocking enough to make even the most plugged-in among us do a double-take. Or stand up and walk around in an attempt to regain composure.
Titans coach Mike Vrabel was living that life as cameras captured his reaction to the wheeling and dealing. Body language isn't everything, of course, yet it's not nothing.
We've all done that move. Either when our team goes three-and-out for the third consecutive time or you realize there are no wipes at the changing table halfway through the process. He looked like Phil Helmuth getting taken out by a lucky hand on a late-night poker show. It's not what you want on what's supposed to be a night full of promise. There's little left to conclude except that Vrabel was momentarily shellshocked and dropped the curtain on an honest reaction.
“Not as long as I’m the head coach,”Vrabel told Rich Eisen back in April when asked about a potential move. “I love A.J. professionally, personally. I’ve known him well as his coach and enjoy seeing him as much as I possibly can. … “As long as I’m the coach here I would want to have A.J. Brown on my football team.”
One one hand, it's just football. On the other, this is the guy who said he'd cut his penis off to win a Super Bowl. He's not wired like the rest of us. He now has to sit through two more days of draft pretending everything is fine.