„I think you embrace it when you try to build an identity, and you carry it on the road with you.“<\/b>
\n„I think you embrace it when you try to build an identity, and you carry it on the road with you.“
The Patriots might be the designated home team for Super Bowl LX on Sunday at Levi\u2019s Stadium.
But it won\u2019t be reflected in their uniforms in Santa Clara.
Given the choice of the gameday attire, the Patriots leadership group opted for their road whites.
\u201cWe had to pick blue or white, and we went with white. I guess the blue would have been a good idea. As long as we\u2019ve got a uniform on,\u201d Mike Vrabel said last week. \u201cI went through this with the uniform police in Tennessee. I try not to get too involved with it. We\u2019re the home team. We get to choose. Guys like the white uniforms.\u201d
As unorthodox as it might be, New England\u2019s track record away from Gillette Stadium speaks for itself.
The Patriots are 9-0 this season in road games \u2014 and 5-0 in bouts where they wear both their white jerseys and white pants.
But the decision to pack those road whites isn\u2019t rooted into that sterling record.
\u201cThere we go. I hope the tooth fairy comes tonight, too,\u201d Vrabel said sarcastically when New England\u2019s record was brought up. \u201cWe\u2019ll be real excited.\u201d
Rather, it goes back to a mantra and a foundational piece of this Patriots team\u2019s identity \u2014 one fostered by a roster that seemingly plays its best football in adverse conditions.
The 2025 Patriots embraced the label of \u201cRoad Warriors\u201d \u2014 for more reasons than one.
\u201cThis season is like a storybook \u2014 everybody had their own experiences throughout their lives, and they kind of inserted them in this team,\u201d Stefon Diggs said. \u201cLike the \u2018road warrior\u2019 concept, going on the road, going in a hostile environment \u2014 it\u2019s just like something we kind of got conditioned to do.\u201d
The motto was crafted by the 2025 NFL Coach of the Year in Vrabel, although even the Patriots head coach didn\u2019t expect it to become one of the defining rallying cries for a team that\u2019s now one win away from a Super Bowl title.
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what sticks,\u201d Vrabel admitted. \u201cI didn\u2019t think at the time that it would have stuck, but here we are at the end of January, and it\u2019s still sticking.\u201d
Vrabel and his coaching staff are no strangers when it comes to diving deep into the video archives to keep players entertained, attentive, and motivated during the long hours spent reviewing film, installing game plans, and preaching principles.
When announcing game captains on the Friday before games, Vrabel would showcase highlights of that player out on the gridiron \u2014 while also weaving in awkward highlights taken from their high-school career.
Outside of the gridiron, Vrabel is no stranger to sharing clips from other sports, movies and more in order to motivate his players.
Around the Patriots\u2019 Week 2 matchup against the Dolphins \u2014 New England\u2019s first road trip of the season \u2014 Vrabel first started to show clips of the \u201cThe Road Warriors,\u201d an 80s-era tag-team wrestling duo also called \u201cThe Legion of Doom\u201d.
New England\u2019s head coach eventually had to pivot.
\u201cI ran out of WWF clips to show them about the Road Warriors,\u201d Vrabel lamented.
As the Patriots embraced the challenge of three-straight road games against the Bills, Saints, and Titans, Vrabel switched gears.
He opted to show a clip from the 1979 cult film, \u201cThe Warriors\u201d \u2014 where the titular group was taunted by a rival gang member.
The oldest player on New England\u2019 roster, Morgan Moses, wasn\u2019t born until 1991. Even Vrabel was just four years old when \u201cThe Warriors\u201d hit theaters.
But the film \u2014 and the sight of the villain, Luther, clanging bottles together with his fingers, \u2014 clearly resonated with Vrabel\u2019s players \u2026 and even his staff.
\u201cI mean, the first time, I think [director of sports performance] Frank [Piraino] emptied two soy sauces and a Red Hot bottle, and was walking around the building,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d And he\u2019s like, \u201cWarriors.\u201d
\u201cAnd I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s a soy sauce \u2013 it\u2019s like a soy sauce bottle and a Red Hot.\u201d\u2019
The Patriots players clearly took note, however, with their new rallying cry reinforced on numerous occasions during New England\u2019s victory over the Broncos in the AFC championship game last moth.
As veteran wideout Mack Hollins arrived on the scene at Empower Field at Mile High, he clanged together a trio of bottles together in a reenactment of Luther\u2019s taunt.
\u201cWarriors! Come out to play-ayyy,\u201d Hollins said as he walked by cameras.
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of been our rally cry for a while, and I thought it was a good thing to do for that one,\u201d Hollins said on Wednesday, adding: \u201cThere\u2019s probably like five of us who have seen that movie. \u2026 I like to have fun with my arrival outfit, so it was good.
\u201cThe bottles I got were smaller. They took some searching to find, but they still weren\u2019t small enough. They\u2019re not like the size of the little stubbies that they had in the movies back in the day. So luckily, my hands are big enough to really hold them. A smaller handed person would have definitely struggled.\u201d
Vrabel issued a similar \u201cWARRIORS!\u201d decree in the Patriots locker room after that 10-7 win, in which New England gutted out a raucous Denver crowd and brutal weather conditions to punch their ticket to Super Bowl LX.
While Levi\u2019s Stadium will feature its fair share of New England fans making the trek out west for Super Bowl LX, the Patriots are expecting a lot of noise from a hefty contingent of Seahawks fans \u2014 deemed The 12s\u201d in reference to being the extra person on the field.
The stakes will be higher than ever on Sunday. But be it a muggy afternoon in Miami, a snow-swept field in Denver, or a crisp evening in Santa Clara on Sunday, New England\u2019s approach away from Gillette Stadium remains unchanged.
\u201cI think you embrace it when you try to build an identity, and you carry it on the road with you,\u201d Drake Maye said, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s not pretty. It\u2019s not going to be everything we wanted. But there\u2019s times on the road where we\u2019ve been on fire, and there\u2019s times when you\u2019re just trying to do whatever you can to win. I think that\u2019s what playoff football is about.\u201d
For Diggs, it comes as little surprise that this roster \u2014 one comprised of cast-offs, reclamation projects, and unproven youngsters \u2014 welcomes any opportunity to go into hostile territory and sap the energy out of the building.
\u201cI just think it\u2019s stuck, because it\u2019s a lot of guys from this team who come from different backgrounds, or come from different teams,\u201d Diggs said. \u201c[They\u2019ve] been cut, been signed in free agency, whatever it is. No sob stories. We all gonna band together. We\u2019re gonna figure out a ways to win. So that\u2019s why I think the \u2018road warrior\u2019 mindset kind of translated so well.\u201d
The Patriots have one more road game left on their docket this season.
If the \u201croad warriors\u201d live up to their billing, they could be coming home with football\u2019s greatest prize.<\/p>\n