« I think you embrace it when you try to build an identity, and you carry it on the road with you. »
« 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’s Stadium.
But it won’t be reflected in their uniforms in Santa Clara.
Given the choice of the gameday attire, the Patriots leadership group opted for their road whites.
“We 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’ve got a uniform on,” Mike Vrabel said last week. “I went through this with the uniform police in Tennessee. I try not to get too involved with it. We’re the home team. We get to choose. Guys like the white uniforms.”
As unorthodox as it might be, New England’s track record away from Gillette Stadium speaks for itself.
The Patriots are 9-0 this season in road games — and 5-0 in bouts where they wear both their white jerseys and white pants.
But the decision to pack those road whites isn’t rooted into that sterling record.
“There we go. I hope the tooth fairy comes tonight, too,” Vrabel said sarcastically when New England’s record was brought up. “We’ll be real excited.”
Rather, it goes back to a mantra and a foundational piece of this Patriots team’s identity — one fostered by a roster that seemingly plays its best football in adverse conditions.
The 2025 Patriots embraced the label of “Road Warriors” — for more reasons than one.
“This season is like a storybook — everybody had their own experiences throughout their lives, and they kind of inserted them in this team,” Stefon Diggs said. “Like the ‘road warrior’ concept, going on the road, going in a hostile environment — it’s just like something we kind of got conditioned to do.”
The motto was crafted by the 2025 NFL Coach of the Year in Vrabel, although even the Patriots head coach didn’t expect it to become one of the defining rallying cries for a team that’s now one win away from a Super Bowl title.
“It’s amazing what sticks,” Vrabel admitted. “I didn’t think at the time that it would have stuck, but here we are at the end of January, and it’s still sticking.”
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.
