Win or loss, Mike Vrabel made it his mission every week during the 2025 season to personally greet his players as they returned to the locker room. Super Bowl LX was no exception, but it needed the NFL Coach of the Year to dig deep after his New England Patriots were beaten 29-13 by the Seattle Seahawks.
Captured by NFL Films’ cameras, Vrabel offered words of encouragement to his team immediately after what had been a highly successful season came to a crashing end. The brief segment also manages to show why the Patriots’ turnaround under their first-year head coach happened the way it did: Vrabel is fully invested in not just his team as a whole but his players individually.
The Patriots’ head coach was consistent in his messaging after the game. Addressing the players again on Tuesday, after they had returned to Foxborough to put an official wrap on the 2025 season, he expressed similar thoughts.
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“I just talked about a disappointing finish to a phenomenal, exciting, enjoyable year,” he explained during his end-of-season press conference later that day. “It’s unfortunate. Talked to them about the foundation I think that we’ve built. Much like a home, you build a home and then run out of things to do, so you continue to add on to it, you finish the basement, you make additions to it, and we’ll try to do that to this football team. I like the foundation of it, and we’ll try to improve on it.”
Considering Vrabel’s leadership in light of a Super Bowl loss, it is not hard to see why his players are bought in as well.
“He meant a great deal to all of us, I think,” said running back Rhamondre Stevenson. “Great guy to have in the building, great leader, man. Great guy to follow.”
