Mike Vrabel responds to Cam Newton's 'fool’s gold' take about 9-2 Patriots

As Lauren Campbell shared for MassLive, retired NFL quarterback Cam Newton raised eyebrows when he said during an ESPN appearance ahead of the weekend that the 9-2 New England Patriots have "fool’s gold written all over them." 

During a Monday morning appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI, first-year Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about Newton's take.

Mike Vrabel, Patriots not focusing on what Cam Newton thinks

"Nothing’s weird to me, because people can come on the radio or, you know what I mean? It’s just (saying) things that get their attention," Vrabel said, per Campbell. "We are OK with that. I promise you, we were OK with it. Anything that anybody says, we are going to come to work. We’re going to focus on us. We’re going to try to improve, and we’re going to focus on the Bengals and going on the road, trying to get our 10th win. That’s all we’re going to focus on."

The Patriots began an eight-game winning streak when they defeated the Carolina Panthers (6-5) back in Week 4. During the ongoing run, New England has earned a 23-20 Week 5 victory at the Buffalo Bills (7-3) and a 28-23 Week 10 win at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4). 

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook had second-year Patriots quarterback Drake Maye second among the betting favorites at +185 odds to claim the Most Valuable Player Award for the campaign. Also on Monday, ESPN BET had the Patriots as seven-point favorites for their matchup at the 3-7 Bengals on Nov. 23. 

"What are we gonna do? Put Cam Newton clips up there? We’d rather put our clips or the Bengals clips," Vrabel added about whether he could use Newton's comments as bulletin-board material. "I don’t think that’s even remotely close to how we should inspire our players to play better."

Mike Vrabel sends "no naps" warning to Patriots

If the season ended after Week 11, the Patriots would be the No. 2 seed for the AFC portion of the playoffs. Nevertheless, Vrabel doesn't want his players looking past any opponent this fall. 

"This league is - it's so just finicky, you know? I mean, you have to continue to do it each and every day, and on gameday it's certainly the most important," Vrabel explained, per Tom Carroll of Audacy. "So, no naps. That's what we're going to start talking about. No naps. We don't want to take any naps and have any days off."