Mike Vrabel kept “calling and calling” Dean Pees

So it turns out it was Mike Vrabel’s persistence is what lured Dean Pees out of retirement. Here is what he told Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun:

“One week after I retired I had gotten an offer to coach and I turned it down,” said Pees, who was with the Ravens for eight years, the last six as coordinator. “I had already spoken with the officials at Medicare, talked with the NFL about my pension and had planned the move. We were ready to move our stuff to our retirement home in Michigan.

“Then I got a call from Mike Vrabel [first year Tennessee head coach] and he kept calling and calling. When I was sitting in the office, I kept missing the game more and more. It got to the point where I finally knew I missed it and told him ‘Yes, I’d do it.’ ”

Pees went on to say that he would not have taken the job if it wasn’t for Vrabel.

Pees also told Preston that he was already hired before his son, Matt, took a job with the Titans, and that he would have come here even if Matt didn’t get a job:

“I had already taken the job before Matt was hired and would have done so without them hiring him,” Pees said. “But this is the right situation at the right time. I get to coach with my son and how many people get to work with their children in the same profession? He has a wife and child, has worked hard and this is a great opportunity for him.

Pees is such a good hire for Vrabel and the Titans. There is going to be a lot of youth and inexperience on this staff, but in Pees you have a guy who has been doing it for a long time. He has also coached with some of the best defensive minds in the game in Bill Belichick and Nick Saban. That will be so valuable for Vrabel in his first year as a head coach.