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The New England Patriots are about to be in their 12th Super Bowl in franchise history, but only a handful of players on this year’s roster have ever experienced the “Big Game” in their careers.
Good thing they have a head coach who knows a thing or two about what it takes to win it.
Mike Vrabel has had a dream first year coaching his former squad who he helped win three Super Bowls during the early 2000s. His leadership, along with the rest of his coaching staff, has been crucial in turning a four-win team for the last two NFL seasons into a squad worthy enough of reaching the pinnacle of football once more.
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So, what exactly is the message Vrabel has for the Patriots as they prepare for the Seattle Seahawks over the next week?
“We are going to the Super Bowl to win the Super Bowl,” backup quarterback Tommy DeVito told Fox News Digital, while discussing his partnership with Progressive. “That’s it. We’re not just saying, ‘Oh, we made it to the Super Bowl. Cool.’ No, we’re going there to win it.”
Going from a four-win team just a year ago to AFC champions is quite the leap for any franchise, but it doesn’t shock anyone that Vrabel isn’t content with just that victory. He wants to win it all, and so does the rest of the team.
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Only five players — Carlton Davis III, Christian Elliss, Mack Hollins, Austin Hooper and Milton Williams — have had any type of experience with a Super Bowl in their careers. The rest of the Patriots’ roster is hungry to reach their first rings, including DeVito.
“As much as everyone wants to be in that game, you want to be on the winning side of it. That other side I’m sure is not too much fun after,” he said.
DeVito’s season began on the New York Giants’ roster, where he became a fan-favorite quarterback after needing to step up in 2023 and 2024 due to Daniel Jones dealing with injuries. He joined the Patriots’ quarterbacks room after the Giants got crowded with the additions of rookie Jaxson Dart, Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston.
During his time in his home state of New Jersey — the Giants’ facility is in the same parking lot as MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford — DeVito understood the pedigree of a Super Bowl-winning franchise. But even though two of those Vince Lombardi Trophies in the hallway were wins over the Patriots, there’s more hardware in Foxborough.
And those didn’t come easy.
That word, “easy,” is one that has been thrown out about this year’s Patriots run back to the Super Bowl. Yes, their regular-season strength of schedule was near the bottom of the league (30th), but their NFL Playoffs journey hasn’t been. The Patriots faced three of the league’s top-five defenses, including their AFC Championship Game matchup with the No. 1-seeded Denver Broncos on the road.
DeVito admitted the team inevitably sees the chatter about how people believe the Patriots have had an easy road to this point, but he thinks they’re mistaken.
“Everything revolves around your phone, whether you’re scrolling looking at cars, or watches, or dogs, or whatever else, you’re going to see a Patriots-something at some point. Back home when we played the Texans, all the analysts, reporters — everybody picked the Texans to win. It’s like, OK, if we had an easy schedule, why are you picking them to win?” DeVito questioned.
“People think it’s very easy, but not all teams have to play Josh Allen twice and it almost came down to a third team. And then to go on the road, I think they said we were the first time to go 9-0 on the road. Playing on the road is not easy, no matter what. No matter who the opponent is, the environment is hostile, it’s new weather, or whatever it is. It definitely not easy winning games in the NFL, especially on the road doing it as many times as we had.”
At the end of the day, no matter how hard or easy the opponents have been, the Patriots are back where the franchise expected them to be with Vrabel leading the charge. Now, it comes down to one more game, one that Vrabel knows requires ultimate focus, effort and camaraderie.
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“It doesn’t matter what happened in the game, who played, or whatever it is. As long as that column says 1-0 after that week, it’s all that matters,” DeVito said.
The Patriots will try to go 1-0 one last time on Feb. 8 in Levi’s Stadium.
NEEDING A BACKUP IN REAL LIFE
DeVito considers himself the ultimate backup for the Patriots, but he’s also one off the field.
As part of Progressive’s Backup campaign, DeVito surprised one, well, unlucky fan who had the fantasy football punishment of having to set up a lemonade stand in freezing cold Boston for a day.
DeVito showed up and surprised the fantasy football loser, and though it was a chilly night after all the snow that poured down while the Patriots were beating the Broncos, they sold out of product.
“It was awesome,” DeVito said of the night in Boston. “We had a lot of fun and got a lot of great content out of it, as well as some bystanders who might not have known what was going on. But they got some lemonade in some five-degree weather. So, we made it work.
“Progressive has been great up to this point. They’ve been a ton of fun to work with.”
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