Mike Vrabel has seemingly pushed all the right buttons in his first year as Patriots head coach.<\/p>\n
Among them has been Vrabel\u2019s ability to connect with every player in the building to help foster a tight-knit locker room \u2014 a foundation that has played a significant role in New England\u2019s run to the Super Bowl. Players consistently point to Vrabel\u2019s authenticity and shared experiences as a key reason the message resonates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he does a great job of kind of relating to us, being able to talk as a player and now as a coach of his experiences of winning Super Bowls, the experience of making the playoffs his first year with the Steelers and not making it for four years. Just being able to kind of hit home at spots or moments this season that we can relate back to,\u201d quarterback Drake Maye said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember we talked about it at the beginning of the season, talking about our stories and what hopes we had. Our hopes were to win the big game and win the Super Bowl, and look where we\u2019re at now. All those hopes are coming to a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Patriots have now reached the big game and preparation begins, Vrabel has continued to remind his players not just of what\u2019s at stake, but of how rare and special the moment truly is.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the coolest things I thought I heard this morning from him, him just relaying that to us and knowing what we dreamed of even as a little kid, back when you wanted to watch the Super Bowl at a Super Bowl party, and now we\u2019re the party,\u201d Maye said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s a pretty cool aspect, and I think Coach does a great job of relating to us and relaying a message that hits home for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Patriots will now take center stage against the Seattle Seahawks, with the Lombardi Trophy on the line. And while the magnitude of the moment is obvious, Vrabel isn\u2019t concerned with manufacturing motivation for a group that has belief and trust in the work they\u2019ve put in all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that players need to be motivated, I think they\u2019re motivated. I hope it\u2019s to win a championship, a Super Bowl,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cIf it\u2019s money, that\u2019s fine, it\u2019s professional football. Date the cheerleader, whatever motivates them. I mean, as high school players \u2013 whatever motivates you.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to inspire them, and give them confidence and trust in doing their job. So, I used to think I needed to motivate them; I try to inspire them to do their job with confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Vrabel has seemingly pushed all the right buttons in his first year as Patriots head coach. Among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,103282,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-717061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-super-bowl","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115985303822052500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}