MANCHESTER, N.H. —
The New England Patriots are preparing to take on the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, and a big reason for their success is new head coach Mike Vrabel.
Vrabel won three Super Bowls as a linebacker for the Pats, so he has a pretty good idea what it takes to make it to the big game.
“I’m focused on embracing the preparation and enjoying this entire experience,” Vrabel said this week.
How Vrabel treats his players is a big reason why the Patriots are where they are. Win or lose, after every game, Vrabel is in the tunnel to embrace each player as they exit the field.
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It’s clear the team wants to play for him. It was one year ago, after a second straight four-win season, that Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced that Vrabel would be the new head coach.
No one at the time of that introductory press conference could’ve imagined that the team would be on the verge of another Super Bowl so quickly.
“It was clear to me and to my family in my soul that this was the place that I wanted to be,” Vrabel said in January 2025.
There was something he said that day that has come to shape the group into a championship contender.
“We’re going to earn the right to be here every day,” he said. “We’re going to remove entitlement from our football team.”
And now, as the Patriots try to punch their ticket to the big game, one of his former teammates said that what players love about Vrabel is his authenticity.
“It’s who Mike is,” said former Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham. “So, if you’re not being yourself, players tend to pick up on that really quickly, and I think what he has created is the rapport that he needs with a lot of these guys to get them to sort of buy into a greater team ethic. That does happen a lot of different ways, but Mike just comes at it from a different angle.”