NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Mike Vrabel congratulated Brian Callahan when Tennessee hired him as Vrabel's successor as the Titans' head coach.
Vrabel also texted Callahan after being fired six games into his second season.
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Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) fumbles the ball while hit by Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Devin White (45) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye runs with the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Tennessee Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy speaks during a news conference at the NFL football team's training facility Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel reacts during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
“I just remember all those coaches or people that reached out after I was let go,” Vrabel said. “I think that that’s important because nobody texts when you lose, they all text when you win. So, it’s a good reminder.”
Vrabel returns Sunday to coach against the franchise that gave him his first NFL head coaching job. He spent six seasons with the Titans and had three playoff berths, two AFC South titles, an AFC championship appearance and a 54-45 record.
With the New England Patriots 4-2 and sitting atop the AFC East in his first season, Sunday is Vrabel's opportunity to remind Titans fans and ownership what they lost by firing him in January 2024. Being on the other sideline will be a little different.
This is the Patriots' third straight road game, and New England comes in having won three straight with the last a 25-19 victory at New Orleans. Vrabel and his Patriots face a Tennessee franchise in turmoil.
“There’s a lot there to unpack outside of the interesting fact that I used to coach in Tennessee,” Vrabel said.
Not only was Callahan fired after a 1-5 start and 4-19 record, the Titans are 10-30 in a skid that started under Vrabel. Mike McCoy will debut as the Titans' interim coach, his first head coaching job since being fired by the San Diego Chargers at the end of the 2016 season.
McCoy isn't worried about keeping the Titans' attention with this franchise looking for their first home win since beating the Patriots in overtime Nov. 3, 2024. Tennessee is home after its own three-game road swing capped by a 20-10 loss at the Las Vegas Raiders.
“This is the NFL,” McCoy said. “We all have a job to do.”
The Patriots will be following Vrabel's approach ignoring all the attention that goes along with the coach's return to Tennessee.
“He’s not treating it like a big deal, so it’s kind of bleeding into us,” Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said. “We’re treating it like another week, another opponent, and treating it the same. The way he’s handling it is the right way.”
The Patriots already have matched their win total for each of the past two seasons and are not thinking ahead. Safety Jaylinn Hawkins said he gets the sense that New England is doing a good job at prioritizing improvement and letting results stem from that.
“We’re not really worried about the ‘he say-she say,’” Hawkins said. “I call it poison. It reminds you of poison. We’re not getting too high or too low. We’re trying to stay ready.”
It’s also why Vrabel doesn’t want his team motivated to win in Tennessee because of him.
“We’re not trying to win one for the Gipper here," Vrabel said. "We’re just trying to make sure these guys are focused on improving.”
Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons is the one player the Patriots will have to watch with him off to the best start of his career. He's just the third tackle in 17 seasons with at least 4 1/2 sacks and eight tackles for loss in the first six games, joining Geno Atkins (2012 and 2018) and Aaron Donald (2015).
And Simmons wants a win as a team captain to help McCoy in his new role.
“We've got to make sure we're doing our part of helping him out as leaders and captains to keep this locker room together," Simmons said. "And making sure ... (we're) ready to go play against a good football team that's coming in here I’m sure that’s going to try to embarrass us at home.”
The Titans have placed a lot on the shoulders of rookie quarterback Cam Ward and now the No. 1 pick overall is working with a new head coach. Ward might have to do even more this week against one of the NFL’s top run defenses.
The Patriots rank fourth in the NFL against the run, allowing only 83.5 yards per game. New England is also allowing just 3.46 yards per rush through the first six games, the third-lowest mark in the NFL this season.
The Patriots are also the only team this season that has not surrendered 50 yards to a running back through the first six games.
The Titans hope to get nose tackle T'Vondre Sweat back from injured reserve for this game to help Simmons with all the double-teams he's faced. But wide receiver Calvin Ridley is out with the hamstring he hurt last week. Kicker Joey Slye is back after missing the last game with a right calf injury.
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Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) fumbles the ball while hit by Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Devin White (45) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye runs with the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Tennessee Titans interim head coach Mike McCoy speaks during a news conference at the NFL football team's training facility Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel reacts during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
NEW YORK (AP) — It's only two weeks into the new year, and President Donald Trump has already claimed control of Venezuela, escalated threats to seize Greenland and flooded American streets with masked immigration agents.
And that's not even counting an unprecedented criminal investigation at the Federal Reserve, a cornerstone of the national economy that Trump wants to bend to his will.
Even for a president who thrives on chaos, Trump is generating a stunning level of turmoil as voters prepare to deliver their verdict on his leadership in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Each decision carries tremendous risks, from the possibility of an overseas quagmire to undermining the country's financial system, but Trump has barreled forward with a ferocity that has rattled even some of his Republican allies.
“The presidency has gone rogue,” said historian Joanne B. Freeman, a Yale University professor. She said it's something "we haven’t seen in this way before.”
Trump seems undeterred by the potential blowback. Although he doesn't always follow through, he seems intent on doubling and tripling down whenever possible.
“Right now I’m feeling pretty good," Trump said Tuesday in Detroit. His speech was ostensibly arranged to refocus attention on the economy, which the president claimed is surging despite lingering concerns about higher prices.
However, he couldn't resist lashing out at Jerome Powell, who leads the Federal Reserve and has resisted Trump's pressure to lower interest rates.
"That jerk will be gone soon,” Trump said.
Republican leaders have overwhelmingly rallied behind Trump throughout his turbulent second term. But new cracks began to appear this week immediately after Powell disclosed on Sunday that the Federal Reserve was facing a criminal investigation over his testimony about the central bank's building renovations.
Over the last year, the Justice Department has already pursued criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former national security adviser John Bolton, among other Trump adversaries.
But going after Powell, who helps set the nation's monetary policy, appeared to be a step too far for some conservatives. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, a fierce Trump defender, was unusually critical.
“It just feels like most on Wall Street do not want to see this kind of fight,” she said during her Monday show. “The president has very good points, certainly. But Wall Street doesn’t want to see this kind of investigation.”
The Federal Reserve plays a key role in the economy by calibrating interest rates, which Trump insists should be lower. However, reducing the institution's independence could backfire and cause borrowing costs to increase instead.
At the same time, Trump has decided to expand the United States' role in complicated foreign entanglements — a seeming departure from the “America First” foreign policy that he promised on the campaign trail.
No move was more significant than the U.S. military operation earlier this month to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from his country. In the months leading up to the attack, Trump frequently insisted he was targeting Maduro because of his role in the drug trade. He has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as an economic opportunity for the U.S.
Trump has said the U.S. will start controlling the sale of some Venezuelan oil, and he declared that the South American nation will be run from Washington. He even posted a meme declaring himself the “acting president of Venezuela.”
Trump has also threatened the leadership of Cuba and Iran, while insisting that the U.S. will control Greenland “ one way or the other ” — a position that has raised questions about U.S. relations with European allies. Greenland belongs to Denmark, a NATO member.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday morning. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Trump's immigration crackdown continues to spark confrontations in American cities. Some have turned deadly, such as when a federal agent shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis.
Administration officials have said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer acted in self-defense, accusing Good of trying to hit him with her car. But that explanation has been widely disputed by local officials and others based on videos circulating online.
The incident came after Trump dispatched 2,000 immigration agents to Minnesota, responding to reports of fraud involving the state's Somali community.
On Tuesday, Trump said the administration was targeting “thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention.”
The Trump administration's moves have created “chaos, confusion and uncertainty,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who leads the Democratic Mayors Association.
“There’s so much uncertainty across my city right now. The ICE raids in Minneapolis have really shocked the consciousness of many of my residents, and we’re trying to do everything we can to calm that concerns and quell those fears," Bibb said. “But people don’t feel like the world is getting better. People don’t feel like the economy is getting better.”
Voters across the nation will have their next chance to weigh in on Trump's leadership at the ballot box this November, when Republicans hope to retain control of Congress for the last two years of his presidency.
Democratic campaign officials in Washington are focused largely on the economy in their early political messaging. Most voters maintain a decidedly negative view on the issue, despite Trump's rosy assessment this week.
Just 37% of U.S. adults approved of how the president is handling the economy, according to a January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. His economic approval, which was previously a strength, has been low throughout his second term.
“Donald Trump’s visit to Michigan puts a glaring, unflattering spotlight on how he and House Republicans have failed to address the affordability crisis," said Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads the Democrats' House campaign arm.
But some activists are frustrated that their party's leadership isn't focusing more on Trump's unprecedented power grabs.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of the leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he expects Trump's actions to get worse as his second and final term nears its conclusion.
“Folks at the end of last year who thought he would become a typical lame duck and limp toward a midterm loss have a framework for understanding this moment that is drastically outdated,” Levin said. “Authoritarians don’t willingly give up power. When weakened and cornered they lash out.”
Trump has repeatedly insisted he's only doing what voters elected him to do, and his allies in Washington remain overwhelmingly united behind him.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels predicted that voters will reward the party this year.
“Voters elected President Trump to put American lives first — and that’s exactly what he’s doing," she said. "President Trump is making our country safer, and the American people will remember it in November.”
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
