FOXBORO, Mass. -- Chances are you've already heard, or read, that New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel reached into his personal Wayback Machine the other day to explain what's at stake -- and what's not at stake -- in Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans, a team he coached from 2018 to 2023.

"We're not trying to win one for the Gipper here," Vrabel said as his Wednesday afternoon news conference was winding down.

Here are two things you need to know about that statement:

No. 1: After Vrabel had finished, a handful of younger media people in the room began asking one another who, or what, a "Gipper" is. For those in our reading audience who are also Gipper-challenged, tell you what: I'll have an explanation for you a bit further down in this column. But, we have other matters to discuss, which brings us to ...

No. 2: I believe Vrabel is mostly correct when he says his players aren't looking to win for one the Gipper -- that is, for him -- on Sunday. Put another way, the Patriots aren't going to be storming out of the tunnel at Nashville's Nissan Stadium looking to fold, spindle and mutilate the Titans for the sole purpose of exacting revenge on the team whose ownership sent Vrabel hurtling into the unemployment line after the 2023 season.

I include the word "mostly" because, yes, of course, a Patriots victory Sunday will inspire a delegation of team captains to push a game ball into Vrabel's gut and shout, "That was for you!!!" It'll make for a great video on the Patriots' website.

But coaches come and coaches go, and life goes on. It was, in fact, just this week that the Titans -- yes, the Titans -- fired head coach Brian Callahan, the man who replaced Vrabel. Asked if he was surprised Callahan was let go, Vrabel said, "The surprises in our business shouldn't be surprises. Things happen in this league, and that's a decision that they made. I didn't have a particular reaction to it other than trying to get ready for the game on Sunday."

That may sound cold, but it's not. In fact, Vrabel reached out to Callahan over the phone. "I don't want to see anybody that shares a job with you get let go," Vrabel said during his win-one-for-the-Gipper news conference.

That phone call is yet another indicator why this Patriots-Titans showdown isn't going to be the Mike Vrabel Revenge Tour that a lot of people would like it to be. This is something that Patriots fans of a certain age don't need to be told -- not if they were around when Bill Parcells left the Pats to coach the New York Jets, and when Bill Belichick left the Jets to coach the Patriots.

Now those were messy affairs, with all kinds of fiery news conferences, accusations and legal threats. In both cases, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue had to step in and settle matters, with bags of draft picks going back and forth on Amtrak in order to placate everybody.

For Parcells to exit New England after the Pats' 35-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI and then take the head job with the Jets was viewed as an act of treason, which is why it was only recently that Pats owner Robert Kraft relented and allowed the Tuna to be enshrined in the team's Hall of Fame.

If you weren't around in 1997 when Parcells returned to Foxboro Stadium as coach of the Jets, trust me: It was a megastory.

Vrabel returning to Nashville on Sunday is not that.

And Belichick? When he accepted the Jets' offer to be their coach for the 2000 season and then very quickly scribbled "I resign as HC of the NYJ" on a piece of paper, it caused an uproar in New York. Steve Gutman, the then-president of the Jets, told the media he believed Belichick was a man "in some inner turmoil."

If you weren't around in 2000 when Belichick returned to The Meadowlands as coach of the Patriots, trust me: It was a megastory.

Now then ... the Gipper. George Gipp was a legendary former Notre Dame football player who, speaking from his hospital bed as he lay dying in 1920, asked Fighting Irish coach Knute Rockne to tell the boys to "win just one for the Gipper." Rockne told the story for years. In a movie about Rockne's life, actor and future president of the United States Ronald Reagan delivered Gipp's famous words.

The phrase has been appropriated by others over the years, in sports and beyond, as an inspirational message. It's sometimes said with a wink, as in calling your buddy to say you can't make tonight's softball game and then adding, "Sorry I can't be there. But go win one for the Gipper."

It's OK if you don't know about George Gipp. And it's OK if you don't know about "Knute Rockne, All American," starring Pat O'Brien and Reagan, which had its world premiere at four theaters in downtown South Bend, Ind., in 1940. But Mike Vrabel knows all about the Gipper, and he wasn't even born until 1975. Heck, Reagan wasn't even president yet.

But while Vrabel knows about the Gipper, it's apparently not a strategy he's sharing with his players.

"The message from him this week has been to ignore the noise, whether it's that (Vrabel returning to Tennessee) or stuff about our team or their team," said Pats linebacker Jack Gibbens, who played three seasons for the Titans with Vrabel as his coach. "We're just focusing on what we can control."

Of course. "Ignore the noise" is a tool in every superhero coach's utility belt, but sometimes it's hard to use that tool. If you played for the Jets in 1997 after Parcells orchestrated his infamous speakerphone news conference at Weeb Ewbank Hall, it was impossible to ignore the noise. If you played for the Patriots in 2000 after the New York Post flooded the streets with its "Belichicken" headline, it was impossible to ignore the noise.

Granted, a big part of all that was the Boston-New York thing, which has been going on for more than a century. And there is no Nashville-Boston thing of note. Vrabel's return to Nissan Stadium will be a big story, but it's not something that'll be talked about for years.

Unless Vrabel coaches the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships.

With Parcells and Belichick, it was personal. For Mike Vrabel, facing old team is business