Ty Law Narcs On Mike Vrabel While Admitting The Patriots Used To Drink Whiskey At Practice

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You don’t need to be a genius to understand why most employers usually frown upon workers drinking on the job, but it appears some members of the Patriots were able to get away with that particular practice based on what Ty Law had to say about his time with the team.

Ty Law spent 10 of his 15 seasons in the NFL with the New England Patriots and played under three coaches during that span. Bill Parcells was the man in charge when they drafted the cornerback in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft, and he spent a few seasons under Pete Carroll before Bill Belichick arrived to turn the franchise’s fortunes around.

Belichick managed to lead the Patriots to six Super Bowls thanks in no small part to his no-nonsense attitude and virtually nonexistent tolerance for foolishness, and given his reputation, it’s hard to imagine anyone who played for him would risk drawing his ire.

However, it appears Law and some of his teammates were willing to do exactly that due to a somewhat questionable habit that began before he arrived in Foxborough.

On Monday, Law stopped by The Dan Patrick Show, and during the conversation, the host asked if he’d ever helped himself to an adult beverage before (or during) games. While he said he never engaged in a practice that’s firmly banned by the NFL, he did admit that wasn’t the case when he was practicing.

Here’s what he had to say:

“We did it in practice. Mike Vrabel used to have the flask, so we’d all go to Vrabel and hit the flask; he had some whiskey or something. I was a coffee guy.

He had everybody else getting a flask. Back then, we used to have to drive to practice…before the beautiful Gillette Stadium in Foxborough…We were driving over there with helmets and shoulder pads on just being silly, and hell yeah we were taking drinks in the car. 

Coach Parcells, Pete, when we were over in the other practice facility, it was going down on that little five-minute drive—especially when it was cold outside.”

Law didn’t explicitly mention the Belichick Era while discussing the habit in question, but Vrabel signed with the Patriots prior to the start of the 2001 campaign after playing the first four seasons of his career with the Steelers.

I don’t think there are many experts out there who’d endorse this approach (especially the whole “drinking and driving on the way to practice” thing), but it doesn’t appear it hurt the Patriots too much based on how they ultimately fared in the long run.