Is It Business As Usual With The Patriots?

By Steve Atkinson 

The Patriots and Vrabel have obviously been in the news a lot these last few weeks. The NFL draft for the Patriots has definitely taken a back seat, even though the media around the team just want to talk about football. I’ll have something soon as to why national and local media haven’t covered the Vrabel situation outside of what’s been reported. It won’t be surprising, I’m just trying to confirm a few things first.

It’s the second week of OTAs, and Vrabel is back in the building. Hunter Henry spoke on Tuesday and said it’s been business as usual around the team. Hunter Henry spoke about losing the Super Bowl in February.

I watched a little. It still stings, to be honest with you,” Henry said. “Obviously, we didn’t play to the capability that we wanted to play at all on the biggest stage, and that was very disappointing and hard to process for a while. It has taken a while. It still stings, but I think that is good. That’s good that it stings. It’s good. It makes you want to work a little harder. To get all the way to the end and then not achieve it was hard. There were a lot of positives when you really step back from it and are able to really look at the full picture. I mean, making it all the way there is obviously a blessing. It’s really, really hard to do. Obviously, getting there was big, but we didn’t make it all the way.”

Their schedule is a lot tougher, and any losing streak will point right back to the Vrabel situation and how it’s become a distraction in the season. But the Patriots have the back of ESPN and the national media, who will protect them. I’ll have more on that later. It’s going to take a while for them to prove the Vrabel situation isn’t disrupting the football part. Robert Spillane also spoke on Tuesday and said this of Vrabel.

Coach is football, and he keeps the main thing the main thing. I know he’s dealing with personal issues, but when he’s in the building, we’re speaking about football.”

As much as they want to focus on the football part. Local media wants, and national media wants to focus on, except for the football part, besides the New York Post. People are way more interested in the drama surrounding the Vrabel situation and how it’s gonna impact the football on the field.