It takes a special breed of head coach to willingly jump into an NFL dogpile during a training camp practice, especially after retiring years ago. It appears Mike Vrabel was more than willing during the New England Patriots’ joint practice against the Washington Commanders on Wednesday.
There was no bigger fan of it than his starting quarterback.
“That's what we're trying to build, I think, and it starts with the coach, starts with the head coach,” Drake Maye said post-practice. “The intensity, bringing it every day, taking no crap when we're out there on the field
During a heated 11-on-11 session — which also included a few extracurriculars between New England’s Kayshon Boutte and Washington’s Marshon Lattimore — a physical play led to both benches clearing. Patriots offensive tackle Will Campbell finished his block and landed on top of the defender, which prompted Vrabel to try and pull him off. That’s when the dogpile formed.
While Maye wasn’t 100% certain at what led to the scuffle, he did reiterate that while fighting can lead to penalties, the Patriots won’t shy away from facing the heat.
“I'm not sure if anything on this field happened, but I think there's a time where, obviously you don't want to come out here and fight and get in trouble, but at the same time, you don't want to back down from nobody,” Maye said. “At the same time, kind of in the back of our minds, that's kind of how we want to play. The intensity, and kind of when the whistle's going, play hard, and when the whistle stops, get off and get away.”
“I almost got in there, but I think maybe another day, maybe,” he added. “So, we'll see.”
That was the final fight of the afternoon, as both sides soon returned to the football portion of the football practice.
After the pile was cleared up and cooler heads prevailed, Vrabel emerged from the grass with a bloody face. Reminiscent to Troy Brown’s bloody nose back in Super Bowl XXXVIII, the former linebacker was handed a white towel to soak it up.
That certainly got a good laugh out of Maye.
“Somebody said it was like the (President Donald) Trump gunshot wound, so I was laughing at that,” Maye said. “You saw he was breaking down the huddle, and I'm not even sure what happened, when it happened, but he said, 'Ah, don't worry about it, we'll see it on film.' So, we'll see something.
