Choosing from Patriots Hall of Fame Finalists

The Patriots announced the three finalists to be inducted into the team Hall of Fame this summer, putting us all in a bind over trying to choose amongst our favorite players from the original days of the dynasty. This year Matt Light, Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour are those whom we have to choose from, no easy decision by any means.

All three burst onto the scene in 2001, with Light and Seymour stepping in immediately as impact rookies and Vrabel being one of the first of many veteran castoffs who found success under Bill Belichick in New England.

Let’s take a quick look at all three and then decide who gets the PatsPropaganda vote this year.

Matt Light: Light was Tom Brady‘s blindside blocker for 11 seasons. Only two of those seasons were cut short by injury — 2005 and 2009, and both times the Patriots offense really suffered due to his absence. Light was also a foundational personality during his decade-plus. His pranks and shenanigans were infamous and were a vital part of the Pats’ personality on the field, as he led the way for the bearded brotherhood upfront. Light was also a pillar in the community, establishing a foundation and an annual shootout to raise money. Light’s career spanned from Super Bowl 36 to Super Bowl 46, as he called it a career after the second Super Bowl loss to the Giants, clearing the way for Nate Solde to step in. Light’s reliability and personality on the team along with his presence off the field being a great member of the community have already engrained him as a forever Patriot who helped define the Patriot Way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzNvySQWj0

Richard Seymour: Maybe the most dominant defensive lineman to play for the Patriots in the last two decades, Seymour was the first versatile chess piece who was just as dominant whether he was two-gapping or rushing the passer from the inside. Seymour was the only one of the three nominees to spark some drama, holding out the first four days of training camp in 2005 which got him a pay raise for the season. He then signed an extension in 2006 but in the final year of that deal he was abruptly traded to Oakland for a first-round pick that ended up being Nate Solder. Seymour’s stats don’t jump off the page but his play on the field sure did.

Mike Vrabel: Vrabel came to the Patriots after four quiet years in Pittsburgh and immediately became one of the key pieces of Bill Belichick’s defense. Praised for his on-field smarts and versatility, Vrabel came through in big spots time and again for the Patriots. In 2005, with the linebacker corps thinned due to poor performance and injury, Vrabel stepped into an inside linebacker role for the first time in his career. Vrabel played on the edge, even rubbing some of his own teammates the wrong way as documented by Tedy Bruschi in his book Never Give Up. But in many ways Vrabel attitude and edge was a large part of what defined the Patriots’ defense from 2001 to 2008, a stretch where he only missed five games. If there was a defensive player who summed up what made the Patriots successful, it was Vrabel. Misused and unappreciated on another team, Belichick put him in position to succeed and he helped lead the team to four Super Bowls with three titles.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMQexecYyk0

The Pick

There’s no easy choice here. Without any one of these three guys, the Patriots might not have won those first three Super Bowls. Each was a key contributor in every sense of the word. They not only played well but they set the tone for the Patriot Way both on and off the field.

But ultimately I’m a defense guy and that’s why my pick is Vrabel by a small beard hair over Light. The biggest reason is the personality that Vrabel brought,  with the extreme football smarts that would eventually land him a head coaching job in Tennessee. If Bill Belichick was going to manufacture a linebacker he would look a lot like Vrabel — extremely smart, versatile and tough, and played his best in the biggest games. The fact that all 10 of his catches went for touchdowns is only the perfect statistical icing on the cake showcasing just how good of a football player Vrabel was.

Light and Seymour were outstanding players, but Vrabel was special in his own unique way and that’s why I’d put him in first.