Vrabel explains why he got involved in Patriots-Commanders joint practice fight

Patriots gamers acquired a kick out of Mike Vrabel’s involvement within the combat that broke out with the Commanders in Wednesday’s joint follow, however New England’s head coach didn’t giggle an excessive amount of concerning the matter.

In his first feedback concerning the combat, Vrabel sternly defined why he felt the necessity to soar right into a pile of Patriots and Commanders gamers pushing and shoving one another when he was requested concerning the incident on Sunday.

“I spotted that Will [Campbell] and I have been considering the identical factor — simply attempting to get the second man off TreVeyon [Henderson] and so they’re wrestling round,” Vrabel informed reporters. “I simply don’t need something to occur to anyone. My job is to attempt to break these up and I don’t thoughts doing it, and that’s type of the way it went.”

The combat broke out after Henderson made a tough block on a Commanders participant. Vrabel acquired into the pile that shortly fashioned as Campbell was additionally within the combine. A number of moments later, the Patriots’ head coach emerged with blood on his face.

After follow, a number of New England gamers joked about Vrabel’s involvement. Vast receiver DeMario Douglas stated that Vrabel informed him, “It is best to have seen the opposite man,” when he requested his coach what occurred to him.

A number of the gamers additionally appreciated Vrabel’s willingness to get within the combine like that.

“He’s proper there with us, man. I feel that participant comes out in him just a little bit too,” tight finish Hunter Henry stated.

Drake Maye shared that Vrabel stated that the workforce would return and later watch the movie of their head coach moving into the combat. Nevertheless, Vrabel wasn’t the one to indicate them the footage of the combat.

“I didn’t present the workforce. All of them checked out it, clearly, of their assembly rooms as a result of guys have been laughing at me,” Vrabel stated.

When the Patriots took on the Commanders of their preseason opener on Friday, there gave the impression to be a minor scar on Vrabel’s proper cheek from the incident. The scar from the combat gave the impression to be gone, although, at Sunday’s coaching camp follow.

Within the precise recreation in opposition to Washington, New England confirmed extra combat than its opponent. It cruised to a 48-18 win, with Vrabel saying he thought his workforce performed a “clear recreation” after watching the movie.

“I believed we performed – to proceed to construct the id of taking part in with nice effort and attempting to care for the man with the ball,” Vrabel stated. “We’ve got to sort out higher, and that occurs typically within the first reside motion. A variety of great things to show off of there.

“Did quite a lot of actually good issues,” Vrabel added. “Then we simply need to proceed to enhance the issues that we talked about with the missed tackles or getting right into a rhythm with the passing recreation and type of simply proceed to progress.”