FOXBOROUGH – For one special summer afternoon on Saturday, the Patriots allowed the storytellers to metaphorically tell each other their own personal stories.

The media covering the team regularly was invited to bring their families to training camp and a barbecue on Saturday. But, not just training camp like the same event last year…this time, they were also invited into the media workroom for Mike Vrabel’s pre-practice press conference, a true look ‘behind the ropes’ if you will.

Spouses, significant others, grandparents, moms, dads, kids, they all hear about and see the life we live from afar, but on what turned out to be a memorable, pride-filled day, everyone in this world got to share a little piece of everybody else’s stories.

It’s my job, but it’s hard to find the right word or words to truly encapsulate what Saturday meant for a lot of us. We all have different paths to earning the ‘golden ticket’ that is a Patriots credential, but it was pretty damn cool to see it all come together in one spot for a few hours.

Just because I’m a lunatic and get to everything extremely early, I strolled into the New Balance Athletics Center with my mom Joann and grandmother Anna around around 8:35 ahead of the 9:30 press conference. Using a three-wheel electric scooter, I was a little worried my mom ultimately wouldn’t be able to enjoy things like everyone else, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth as everyone between Patriots PR and the volunteers who regularly work practices flipped tables (not literally) to make sure they were all set throughout the afternoon.

The cool part during the early portion of the morning was seeing everyone start to roll in with various family members, with wives or spouses recognizing someone else from TV or the radio and being thrilled to finally meet them. The random conversations starting up between proud grandparents or parents smiling and saying ‘yeah that’s my so-and-so.’ Even WBZ legend Dan Roche jokingly telling my grandmother to get out of his usual seat drew a big laugh and was a small memory she re-lived a few times with a chuckle during the day.

With a packed room, Mike Vrabel took to the podium and instead of dishing the usual first question honors to Karen Kuerigan, passed it off to Chad Graff’s daughter, who quickly replied with a precious “no thank you, not right now,” drawing a big laugh and an ‘aww’ from those in attendance.

Later, in between the big, bad, tough football questions, another youngster asked Vrabel if he preferred being a player or a coach, to which Vrabel quickly answered with a hilarious remark.

“Coaching stinks, buddy,” he said. “I tell them, play as long as you can, because then you got to get a real job.”

At the end of the presser. Vrabel went back to his initial choice for the first question, seeing if she wanted the last one, which ended in him revealing his favorite color was ‘watermelon,’ matching her dress, a touching way to end the first part of the morning.

From there, it was off to practice, where families were invited to walk up the same steps the players (used to) walk up to sit inside the media tent. Somehow, my mom and grandmother ended up in the players’ wives and family tent after taking the elevator.

That scooter will get ya anywhere.

Meanwhile, John had his wife and daughter nearby while we had the pleasure of sitting with Patriots Wire’s Sophie Weller and her parents, who were a joy to watch a practice with. Towels and blankets were scattered throughout the hill – as they normally are with reporters – but now some were occupied with little ones blowing bubbles or tossing a football around. Some even enjoyed a classic Del’s Lemonade slushy.

A little bit of a different atmosphere you could say.

For the next two hours, the Pats threw us all a bone, running the majority of the practice in the red zone right in front of the media (which rarely if ever is the case), with the offense providing several highlight reel touchdowns. For those family members that may never get to a game (like mine), this was as good as a Super Bowl with all the up close action.

Following the session and usual player interviews – which for some turned into a true moment of pride watching their love ones in action – it was time to head inside the Draft Kings lounge for a barbecue. Not before kids got autographs and parents got photos to commemorate the day though, of course.

Like he did last year, Vrabel walked in and began shaking hands, stopping for photos or just chatting with every single family member for about a half hour. He quickly remembered mom and grandma from last year, telling them they should have sat front row for the presser instead of off to the side.

The guy is truly a pro at building connections.

Families began to disperse about 1:30 p.m. and just like that, it was back to business as usual for a Sunday walkthrough.

But, the uniqueness of the day truly stuck with me. So much so, that on Sunday I asked both Chris Price from the Boston Globe and Mike Reiss from ESPN – two absolute legends in this region and bar setters for the rest of us – for their thoughts on the day and what it meant to them.

“I thought it was great,” said Price, who had his wife with him. “It’s always nice to recognize the fact that it’s a long season and you don’t always see your family as much as you’d like to during the season. To be able to have them come and see what we do – not that we’re out digging ditches by the side of the highway or anything – but, to have them experience it even a little bit, I think is really cool.

“The only comparison that I can make was in 2003 I believe it was, they had a media football game on the field and we had lunch after that. Bill (Belichick) took us into the meeting room after that and showed us film and said ‘this is what we look for’ and he kind of broke stuff down, That was also a nice kind of way to break up training camp. Having something like yesterday, it was fun in the same regard because you got to see some guys – Vrabel particularly – kind of let his guard down a little bit taking to us and spending time with the families.

“Ultimately, the biggest takeaway from me is that it’s a nice way to introduce friends and family to what we do and kind of show them the fun stuff that goes on.”

For Reiss – who had his father Roy with him – the opportunity to enjoy an experience like this was truly one to cherish.

“I think the thing that stands out to me is the effort made by the Patriots and Mike Vrabel to personalize things,” he said. “They allow you to bring family members, but it’s not just that. Mike Vrabel takes a segment of his time and wants to meet the people you brought. I think it has a personal touch to it that’s reflective of what he may even be trying to do with his players.

“The reason I do this is because of (my dad). He was a sportscaster growing up, so I looked up to him. He loves football and the Patriots. For us to be sitting in the media tent and they’re doing red zone drills right in front of us, I was watching his mind racing. He kept saying ‘I can’t believe how coordinated it is. I can’t believe how big these guys are. I can’t believe the presence that the coach has.’

“It was cool for me to watch him experience that and as we get older, you realize time is not promised to us in the future. So, I think I really just appreciated having the time.”

While we’ll all be back on the grind Monday with a big week of practices against Philadelphia coming up, the Patriots deserve acknowledgement for what they provided on Saturday.

For many in that tent, it’s an experience and an afternoon that will be remembered forever.