New England Patriots
“You always see other teams do it. I’ve got literally no swag, so I just go out there and run.”
FOXBOROUGH — The New England Patriots took the field at Gillette Stadium with the familiar arena anthem of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” blaring through the arena.
But for the first time in well over two decades, the Patriots made a change to their pregame introductions ahead of Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns — with players now running to the middle of the field.
In addition, offensive starters were introduced individually, with Drake Maye, Kayshon Boutte, Stefon Diggs, and Will Campbell drawing plenty of cheers from a packed crowd in Foxborough.
The Patriots have been introduced as a team during introductions since the 2001 NFL season, with Bill Belichick and New England famously opting to be introduced as one unit ahead of their victory over the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.
After that upset win over “The Greatest Show on Turf”, the Patriots opted to be introduced as a team for the next 23 years — until Vrabel made the switch on Sunday.
“Just feel like these guys put a lot into it and would like to recognize them individually,” Vrabel said of the tweak to the team’s introductions. “Hopefully our fans can embrace that and get excited for them. It’s something that I felt like we wanted to do, create some energy early and get them to recognize the players’ efforts, and allow these fans to support us, which they did.
“It was getting loud on third down. We’ve got to continue to play hard for them so that they cheer for us.”
While Maye and the Patriots embraced Vrabel’s decision, the second-year QB admitted that he still has plenty of work to do when it comes to finding ways to hype up an already raucous crowd during future introductions.
“I was a little bit nervous for it,” Maye acknowledged. “You always see other teams do it. I’ve got literally no swag, so I just go out there and run. I think the guys enjoyed it. I think it was cool kind of hanging back there in the back being the last one.
“I think the first like ten guys, they had the wrong name and ran out too fast. I think we’ll work on it. I think the fans, maybe it was new for them too, so they’ll have to adjust. Maybe next time they’ll be ready for it. I think it was loud. They’re loud every time we do the call outs. So that’s it.”
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