Mike Vrabel played his share of games in Denver as a player over the course of his 14-year career.
Now, as New England’s head coach, Vrabel will lead the Patriots to play in high altitude for a trip to Super Bowl LX.
But Vrabel doesn’t feel like the Patriots need to do anything too special to prepare to play in Denver for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
“No tricks,” Vrabel said in his Monday press conference. “Just play well, try to be prepared and the better condition that you are, the less of an impact that that’s going to make. There’s no tricks.”
Vrabel feels that way in part because there isn’t enough time to truly get acclimated to the altitude anyway.
“Other than going out there last Thursday — which wouldn’t have been an ideal situation considering we had to play last night, but I think just physiologically you have to be at altitude for longer than a day or two or three. It takes time to do that,” Vrabel said. “So, we’ll do what we’ve always done. We’ll travel, be in condition and be ready to play. That’s kind of about what it is.”
As head coach of the Titans, Vrabel’s teams went 1-1 playing regular-season games in Denver.