Inside friendship

Said Bruschi, "He caught on pretty quick about how tight-knit we are here. His little baptism by fire."

Vrabel, who never started a game in his four years in Pittsburgh, arrived in Foxborough with little indication that he would blossom into a team captain and mainstay. Bruschi, meanwhile, already had found his place in the Patriots defense, starting every game for two seasons and working his way into the hearts of New Englanders.

Vrabel and his wife, Jen, had come to Boston unsure of what to expect. Jen hadn't been completely comfortable in Pittsburgh, feeling she and Mike were in a different place than many of the other families on the Steelers.

But the Patriots were different. The Bledsoes reached out to the Vrabels, as did a number of the other couples on the team.

But, among all of them, the Bruschis -- Tedy and Heidi -- stood out. Still do.

"I think everybody would consider a teammate a friend, but then I think that you have people that you know a lot better and really can rely on," Vrabel said. "You can't rely on 60 guys to say, 'Hey, I've got this going on,' or 'What would you do here?' Tedy is certainly at the top of the list of who I would go to."

Not that it's all sunshine and rainbows around the linebackers. The two, like any fast friends, still have the occasional kink to work out in a tight relationship that has them spending long hours with each other. Or, as Jen said, "A lot of their friendship I don't think Heidi and I get to see. They're together every day for hours and road trips. He's with Tedy more than he sees the kids or me."

That's usually good. But not always.

"The way he's able to keep things light around here, it's really something that makes it fun to come to work," Bruschi said, before adding, with a laugh, "Then, at the same time, sometimes he gets on my nerves.

"That's friendship. It's not going to be a lovefest the whole time. Sometimes I feel like punching him in the face. I don't know if he feels the same way about me sometimes, but that's the way it goes."