Getting it down Pat
Don’t tell Rosevelt Colvin the New England Patriots have no stars.
“I think we’ve got a team full of stars. It’s just we don’t get the recognition,” said Colvin, a former Chicago Bears standout who has morphed into a role player since coming to the Patriots. “I think guys take pride in just coming to work and doing their job, and I think that’s what it should be all about.
“Some people choose to talk more than others. Some people want more attention than others. But I think we have a lot of guys in this locker room that sort of back away from it. … Everybody enjoys the attention, everybody enjoys this time. But I think you’ve got mature guys that understand what it’s all about.”
For the Patriots, it’s about being the best team in football over the last four seasons, with two Super Bowl titles and a good chance for a third when they play the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 6 in Jacksonville. But even as New England collects championships, it has had fewer All-Pros and sent fewer players to the Pro Bowl than teams it beat along the way.
It’s not so much a snub as a philosophy of an organization that spreads the salary cap around rather than lavishing it on a few players’ signing bonuses. The big-ego attention getters don’t want to take less money for a chance to win; any remnants of selfishness are stripped at the locker room door.
“It’s just a different philosophy of how you want to manage your money,” coach Bill Belichick said. “I think we have a lot of good football players. I think our players work hard. I respect what they do.
“How that’s evaluated externally, I don’t really know.”
Philadelphia seems to have a reserve supply of big talkers, so that when Terrell Owens got hurt Freddie Mitchell was there to step up to the microphone. A five-time Pro Bowl selection, Owens is more widely known outside of football as the player who appeared with Nicollette Sheridan in a towel-dropping Monday Night Football promo.
“That’s just not our style,” linebacker Willie McGinest said. “It’s not about guys wanting to make names for themselves. It’s not about self-promotion. We’re not going to be running around the field acting stupid. We’re going to act professional.”
Belichick set the tone in 2001-02 when he stuck with Tom Brady over $100 million quarterback Drew Bledsoe when Bledsoe returned from an injury. He also hit former first-round draft choice Terry Glenn with multiple suspensions that left him watching the Super Bowl from home. At the title game, the players relinquished their right to individual introductions and ran onto the field as a team.
Since then, it’s been a point of pride that no one showboats, no one mouths off, no one puts himself first.
“It’s the standard set around here,” safety Rodney Harrison said. “If you don’t act with respect, you’re not going to be a part of it.”
That’s why running back Corey Dillon agreed to restructure his contract to get out of Cincinnati, a longtime loser. Troy Brown, a 12-year veteran, plays offense, defense and special teams to fill in for injured teammates. Tight end Daniel Graham makes blocking as much a priority as catching passes.
“It’s the type of players they bring in here. They make a personal sacrifice in the interest of winning football games,” center Dan Koppen said. “Whatever the coaches ask these guys to do, they’re going to do.”
It’s not that the Patriots are completely without stars.
Ty Law is a four-time Pro Bowl selection who will miss the Super Bowl with a broken foot and then, because of his $12.5 million salary for next season, will probably be let go in the off-season. Richard Seymour is the team’s only offensive or defensive All-Pro, but he’s missed the last three games and might not play against the Eagles, either.
And then there’s Belichick. With a 9-1 playoff record matched only by Vince Lombardi, the coach is probably headed to Canton, Ohio, when he retires. But his bust there will be only slightly less likely to say anything controversial than its model.
Of course, there’s one guy on the field who already has Hall of Fame credentials: placekicker Adam Vinatieri. He’s made two Super Bowl-winning kicks and 82 percent of the rest of his field goal attempts, but that still won’t get him on a lot of magazine covers.
(That hasn’t been a problem for Brady, whose life off the field — everything from dating starlets to an audience with the Pope — makes him fodder for the gossip columns.)
“Tom is a big star outside of the locker room, to everybody else,” Graham said. “To us, he’s just another Patriot.”
They all are.