Even before he coached his first game as the New England Patriots head coach, Mike Vrabel made a huge impression on his players.
Vrabel broke up a fight between Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte and Washington cornerback Marshon Lattimore, which ended up with Vrabel bloodied at the bottom of the pile after trying to break it up.
Patriot players were impressed with their head coach that he was willing to fight for them.
Quarterback Drake Maye compared Vrabel’s face to Donald Trump’s wound after he was shot near his ear.
“Trump gunshot wound,” Maye said. “So I was laughing at that.”
Drake Maye says someone on the field said that Mike Vrabel getting a bloody cheek in today’s scrum with the Commanders looked like the “Trump gunshot wound”#NEPats #RaiseHail pic.twitter.com/a224lv9gDa
— WEEI (@WEEI) August 6, 2025
Maye added, “Pass pro is physical. It’s a physical game. Things happen out there,” Maye said. “There’s a time where obviously you don’t want to come out here and fight and get into trouble. At the same time, you don’t want to back down from nobody. So I’m sure Coach will preach that we can’t have that, but at the same time, kind of in the back of our minds, that’s kind of how we want to play — the intensity, when the whistle is going, play hard, and when the whistle stops, get off and get away.”
Patriots offensive tackle Morgan Moses, who is in his first year with the team, also praised Vrabel.
“He loves what he does. Any time you got a coach you see out there wearing pads and getting punched by guys and doing drills it makes you want to go harder,” he said via ESPN. “He understands the process as a player and a coach.”
As for Vrabel, he seems to be fine. He was last seen on the sideline putting an ice pack on his face, but he has garnered the respect of his team for his heroism in this situation, and that has to be a positive for this franchise.
#Patriots HC Mike Vrabel jumped into a scuffle between his players and the Commanders during joint practice — and came out of the pile bleeding.
The ultimate football guy.
(? @HoodiDrake) pic.twitter.com/B2fEjZwtHt
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 6, 2025
