New England Patriots have won six Super Bowl titles, but in recent years the patriots have experienced more losses than winner.
New England has finished four of the past five seasons with a losing record. Mike Vabel, who played linebacker for the patriots for eight seasons and won three Super Bowls with the team, now has the task of turning the once proud franchise around.
During his play days Vrabel taught what it took to reach high heights in the NFL. This week, the first-year Patriots coach made some of the expectations he has for players.
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New England Patriot’s main coach Mike Vabel discusses the team’s recent free agent additions with the media at Gillette Stadium March 13, 2025. (Eric Canha/Imag images)
As the 2025 NFL draft is approaching, the patriots start their offseason program. Some key points from Vrabel’s first formal address to the team earlier this week have been circulating on social media since.
Players are required to leave mobile phones in their personal bags.
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“We’ve all got mobile phones,” Vrabel said. “Most of you have more than one, actually. Just leave the cell phone in your bag. Just put the phone away.”
New England Patriot’s main coach Mike Vrabel smiles while posing with team owner Robert Kraft, Right, January 13, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
He also wants players to be on time. If a player runs late, Vrabel instructed them to communicate. But he also doesn’t want it to be a habit.
Vrabel then asked players to resist pulling sweatshirt hoodies over their heads during meetings.
“We build our own identity,” Vrabel said. “We are building our own team. We are building our own program. There will be things within what are different … and it is about how we make you as good as you can possibly be as an individual as a player and as a team. That’s all our goal and you have to start understanding it – why we do what we do.”
Mike Vabel thanks Patriot’s fans during a half -time celebration after being introduced in Patriots Hall of Fame in 2023 (IMagn)
Vrabel also emphasized that employees working at the team’s headquarters are there to “help” players to succeed, but they are not the athletes’ “householders.”
“They are here to help you do your job,” Vrabel said. “They’re not here to be your officer, to be your housekeeper, to be your butler. You’re coming where I’m going? We have to treat these people with the utmost respect.”
The Patriots and Bill Belichick agreed to share ways in January 2024 after the Patriots appeared only in an endgame in the four seasons after Tom Brady’s end.
Shortly after Belichick’s departure, Jerrod Mayo was appointed Patriots’ head coach. Mayo was dismissed after the season finale 2024, and Vabel took over. Vrabel was Tennessee Titans’ main coach from 2018-23 and spent the 2024 season as a consultant at Cleveland Browns.
