Football coaches can often draw inspiration from unusual places, and Mike Vrabel is the type of throwback coach who will turn to anywhere to instill it into his New England Patriots.
As it turns out, Vrabel recently found a source of inspiration from his players, and he didn't have to look very far.
With construction work continuing on a new practice facility at Gillette Stadium, Vrabel recently gave a kudos to the "lunch pail" workers who tirelessly worked on the team's new facility, [according to MassLive.](https://www.masslive.com/patriots/2025/05/mike-vrabel-shouts-out-lunch-pails-he-sees-at-445-am-outside-gillette-stadium.html)
Patriots should relate to hard-working "lunch pail" crew
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Every football team needs a handful of guys who have that chip on their shoulder and perform like they're the guy who carries their lunch pail to work daily. One guy that comes to mind when it comes to a player who embodies that trait is John Banaszak, a defensive lineman who won three Super Bowls with the 1970s Steelers, shining alongside one of the best defenses in NFL history.
When the Patriots had a topping-off ceremony last weekend to commemorate their new facility, Vrabel was joined by quarterback Drake Maye, owner Robert Kraft, and cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who, according to the report, joined multiple other team personnel in signing the final beam.
"“Thank you to the men and women at Suffolk and the construction hats, I see you walking to work every morning at 4:45 and you got lunch pails and I can appreciate it,’” Vrabel told MassLive. ”It does somewhat inspire me to think, ‘Man, they’re going to work. It’s time for us to go to work inside the building.’”
### Time to lay down the foundation
Now it's time for Vrabel and the Patriots to use those traits to lay down the foundations for the next great team.
Free agency and the [draft garnered the Patriots a plethora of h](https://musketfire.com/patriots-walk-away-with-best-draft-value-in-2025-and-it-s-not-close-01jt8z6nqw30)igh-gradees. But it's the attitude of the guys who built the Patriots' new facility that Vrabel hopes will rub off on his players. The 2023 and 2024 editions of the Patriots certainly lacked toughness in posting 4-13 records in both campaigns.
If anything, Vrabel has laid out the blueprints for what he wants his Patriots to look like on the field. And now, we can only hope the team's inspiration from the guys who constructed their pristine new training facility can translate to the field.
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