FOXBORO — Weeks after the Patriots hired Mike Vrabel, Joe Mazzulla invited New England’s new head coach to a Celtics practice.
On Wednesday, Vrabel returned the favor.
Mazzulla and his teenage son, Michael Harden, attended the Patriots’ latest training camp practice outside Gillette Stadium.
“Joe is fantastic,” Vrabel said before practice. “I appreciate him, just from the time I got here, reaching out. We probably have different personalities, and I think that that’s probably the thing I appreciate the most about him. He’s always trying to learn and gain knowledge different ways — about building a team, about strategy, about scheme, about inspiring players to do their job well. So I always love my conversations with him, and I’m excited that he could come out here with his son today. His son’s a football player at Xaverian, an outside linebacker.”
Mazzulla wore a black long-sleeve Celtics shirt and carried a notebook, which he used to jot down notes during the Vrabel-led practice. He and Harden, who’s entering his junior year at Xaverian, stood feet away while Keion White, Anfernee Jennings and the rest of the Patriots’ edge rushers worked through individual drills.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft also came over to greet Mazzulla when he arrived midway through practice.
The fourth-year Celtics bench boss, who also visited Foxboro during Bill Belichick’s and Jerod Mayo’s coaching tenures, said after Vrabel’s trip to the Auerbach Center in February that it’s important for Boston’s head coaches to help each other.
“(Vrabel) obviously brings a championship perspective,” Mazzulla said at the time. “But any time you can just get together with guys that are in the same arena as we are and support each other, I think that’s important.”
The Celtics will reconvene for training camp in late September.
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