Mike Vrabel throws a wrinkle in Patriots' final practice ahead of Super Bowl LX

The Patriots’ final practice of the 2025 season included some usual Friday rituals, such as playing “Friday” by Sir Charles Jones at the end of the stretching period. But there was one thing Mike Vrabel did entirely differently in the middle of the team’s session at Stanford Stadium.

In the middle of Friday’s practice, the Patriots’ head coach sent his team to the locker room in order to simulate the experience of dealing with a longer halftime break in the Super Bowl.

“Vrabel doesn’t typically send his team off the field and into the locker room an hour into practice like he did Friday,” The Ringer’s Lindsay Jones wrote in her pool report of Wednesday’s practice. “After a special teams session, Vrabel blew his whistle at 1:52 p.m. and motioned players to leave the field. Players spent 14 minutes inside while Bad Bunny songs (among others) played over the stadium speakers.”

What Vrabel did on Friday isn’t entirely uncommon. In fact, Vrabel took a page out of his former head coach’s playbook. Bill Belichick used to do the same thing in the final practice ahead of a Super Bowl when he was the head coach of the Patriots.

Of course, Bad Bunny is the performer for Sunday’s halftime show. There have been rumors that rapper Cardi B, who is the girlfriend of Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs, could join the show as a guest performer. In a video shared by the Patriots on social media, Diggs dodged a question when asked who might join Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show.

As for the rest of the Patriots’ Friday practice, most of it followed the script from their Friday practices during the season. There was a session where the players watched eight of the assistant coaches compete in one-on-one drills, according to Jones. The final set of team drills saw the Patriots’ starting offense and defense go against the scout team, Jones added.

“It’s Friday, we’re 48 hours before the game, and that’s just how we normally operate,” Vrabel told Jones.

“We still have time to prepare. There’s a lot of time to fine tune things and to get themselves physically and mentally ready to play, but I also want them to be able to enjoy their time with their families and people they care about,” Vrabel added.

Not only was Patriots quarterback Drake Maye a full participant at Friday’s practice, but he was also one of the last players to leave the field. Maye, tight end Hunter Henry, and wide receiver Efton Chism III were the final players to leave the practice field after smaller groups of players worked together following Vrabel’s last huddle, Jones reported.

While Maye was a full participant after dealing with a shoulder issue earlier in the week, there were a pair of Patriots standouts who were limited for Friday’s practice. Edge rusher Harold Landry III (knee) and linebacker Robert Spillane (ankle) were both limited. Landry missed the Patriots’ AFC Championship win over the Broncos, and Spillane left that game early due to injury. Spillane has said that he expects to play in Sunday’s game, though.

Patriots rookie defensive tackle Joshua Farmer is also questionable. He’s been on injured reserve due to a hamstring injury, but was recently designated to return.

“They’re doing everything they can to be ready for the football game, and we’ll see how they respond from practice today,” Vrabel told Jones of the players dealing with injury.