Finally, a good story about the Patriots.

CM Drunk

Welcome to the 'Backerhood






Five disparate personalities, five enormous talents, one peerless unit: how New England's linebacking corps personifies the Patriot Way










Posted: Tuesday November 6, 2007 10:27AM; Updated: Tuesday November 6, 2007 10:27AM

The quintet of (clockwise from top) Thomas, Seau, Colvin, Vrabel and Bruschi boasts 58 years of NFL experience. Michael O'Neill/SI

Never fails. The Patriots' linebackers will shuffle into their meeting room at Gillette Stadium during a game week, fold their bodies into chairs for an hour or more of whiteboard and videotape education, and soon enough coach Bill Belichick is among them. He doesn't have to be there. He can be anywhere he wants, including in the executive suite polishing Lombardi Trophies. Belichick's ID card works on every lock in the building, and he has Matt Patricia to coach his linebackers. Yet more often than not he is in this room.
It is a place where Belichick feels at home, with his kind of guys. Over there is Tedy Bruschi. They call him Bru. He had a stroke less than three years ago, and here he is -- as vital to the defense as he was during New England's three Super Bowl seasons. Look at Mike Vrabel. Call him Vrabes. The guy can tell you what every defensive teammate is doing on every snap. Rosevelt Colvin. Rosy. In 2003, two games into his Patriots career, he suffered nearly the same horrible hip injury that famously ended Bo Jackson's career. Colvin's just now getting back to where he was then. Adalius Thomas. AD or Superman. He weighs 270 pounds, yet his old team, the Ravens, sometimes played him at cornerback. Junior Seau. Eighteen years in the league and still looking for a ring. Belichick pulled him out of retirement two seasons ago.
Those five have a combined 58 years' experience in the NFL (add in special teams demon Larry Izzo, and the total rises to 70; reserves Eric Alexander and Pierre Woods are also in the room), and none is younger than 30. They have been there and done that. Their room is a place where the gap between player and coach shrinks, and the common ground is broad. "I think Bill is at a point in his life and his career where he feels the highest comfort level around the veterans, the older guys," says Carl Banks, who played linebacker for the Giants when Belichick was their defensive coordinator in the late 1980s.
There is an energy in the room. Seau calling everyone Buddy. Colvin raving about his latest stellar play. ("He needs to get a tattoo of his own hand on his back," Thomas jokes.) Vrabel uttering subtle put-downs under his breath. When you play this position for the Pats, you are a member of what they call the 'backerhood. Maybe it was Willie McGinest who came up with the name, when he played in New England from 1994 through 2005. Or Roman Phifer, from '01 through '04. Maybe even Bruschi. Nobody seems to recall, except that it goes back a good while. They all know this: You can't have a thin skin in this room. "And no one is exempt," says Seau, "including Bill."
So the coach is inviting derision when he teaches through nostalgia, showing his linebackers videotape of his Giants' unit from the mid-'80s, a crew for the ages that included Hall of Famers Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor, plus Banks, Gary Reasons and current Patriots assistant coach Pepper Johnson. "He wants us to be like them," says Vrabel. "He tells us, 'Just so you understand how it's done.' We joke back at him that, yeah, but they were doing it against guys who would be working construction these days."
The point is not in the substance of the argument, but in the passion. Belichick is a member of the 'backerhood, too. Last spring he took Colvin into the bubble behind Gillette and held a tackling dummy while the linebacker worked on pass rush moves. Colvin got better; Belichick got a nasty set of bruised ribs, which he could neither hide nor live down. "He's always making fun of us if we have a little nick," says Colvin. "So we've been on him ever since then. 'How are those ribs, Coach?' " Then they have a laugh at the man in the famous gray hoodie.

Junior Seau: Nobody savors Belichick's system more. "I get up in the morning, and I play football," the future Hall of Famer says. "It's a simple life at this point." Winslow Townson/AP

The Patriots are in pursuit of history, chasing a fourth Super Bowl in seven years and the second perfect season in NFL history, after a 24-20 victory over the Colts on Sunday that ran their record to 9-0. They are a synchronous, steamrollering force, from the front office through the coaching staff to the players. No unit better personifies the soul of the franchise than the linebackers, a collection of veterans for whom greatness is both a moment to be cherished and just another day at the office.
"We've always had chemistry in that room," says Bruschi. "But in the other championship years [2001, '03, '04] we were younger guys. Now we have so many more years under our belt. We appreciate everything that's going on. The wins, the jokes, the people, everything."
They play in a system that Belichick has coached for a quarter century. In simplest terms it's a basic 3-4, with Colvin and Vrabel on the outside and Thomas, Bruschi and Seau in a three-man platoon on the inside. They are part of a defensive philosophy that relies on preparation and versatility to limit an offense's options. "On first and second down New England is a pretty basic 3-4 with good technical football," says Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. "On third down, that's when it gets more interesting, as you're trying to figure out who's rushing, who's not rushing, what they're trying to take away. And the linebackers are all really good football players."
More important, they all fit a Belichick prototype. "A lot of teams draft linebackers to fill specific needs: one guy to be a vertical dynamo, just get up the field and rush the passer another guy to just stuff the run in the middle of the field," says one NFL team staffer. "Bill is looking for a little different guy, somebody who is multidimensional, who can drop or rush, stop the run or pursue. And he's got to be football smart, because there is a lot more responsibility than in a lot of other systems."
Banks says, "It's a system of interchangeable parts, so the offense can't pick out who's rushing and who's dropping off. And accountability is big. The defense is set up for everybody to execute, and if one guy doesn't execute, everybody knows it. There's tremendous peer pressure. You come off the field, and Bill says, 'Who got blocked?' You get confessions."
Belichick has coached a long line of exceptional 'backers, from his Giants' crew to Clay Matthews in Cleveland, Mo Lewis with the New York Jets and McGinest and Ted Johnson earlier with the Patriots. But the current linebacking corps might fit his ideal better than any other.

Adalius Thomas: The free-agent prize of 2007 has fit in seamlessly. "I came here with an open mind," he says. "These guys were good long before I got here." Michael Dwyer/AP

Bruschi was first into the room, a third-round draft pick in 1996 out of Arizona, where he had 52 sacks and, according to his coach, Dick Tomey, a motor that never stopped. He became a starter in his fourth year with New England, when Pete Carroll was coach, but blossomed as an inside linebacker under Belichick. Offensive linemen who should have been able to flatten the 6' 1", 247-pound Bruschi couldn't get to him. "He can play the run without being a real thumper," says an NFL assistant who has coached against the Patriots. "He competes because he's got great hands to keep blockers off him and great instincts."
Bruschi was never better than in 2004, the Patriots' third Super Bowl season, when he had 122 tackles, 3 1/2 sacks and three interceptions and made his first Pro Bowl. "He was the guy you heard talking on every play, right up until the snap," says Phifer, who played next to Bruschi on all three championship teams. Just days after the Pro Bowl, Bruschi was hospitalized with a stroke that left him with blurred vision and numbness in his left arm and leg. His return to football, after intense physical therapy, in Week 8 of the 2005 season was one of the most inspiring NFL stories in recent years.
Two seasons later teams try to find holes in Bruschi's game. "If he has limitations now, he knows them so well that he's effective anyway," says another opponent's assistant. "He maneuvers really well around big people inside. Nobody gets a clean shot on him." Says Bruschi, who suffers no lingering effects from the stroke, "I didn't come back until I was ready to play, so I am the same player."
But in the larger sense he is predictably changed. "Can I talk to my teammates a little bit differently after what I went through? I think so," says Bruschi. "I'm a little wiser, I think. What happened to me makes you rethink everything. It also makes you stronger."
Vrabel is Bruschi's compadre. He arrived in 2001, a former pass rushing hellion at Ohio State who had stagnated for four seasons with the Steelers. The two have shared so many snaps that they can communicate on the field without words or signals. "Just a look," says Vrabel. Off the field their families became close, while Vrabel and Bruschi's friendship evolved into a chops-busting contest that nearly imploded.
"Vrabes would talk to me about giving me strokes on the golf course and how, when I left the hospital, I had my stroke walk really down," says Bruschi. "And at the time he was negotiating a new contract, so I'm giving him a hard time about that. Health and finances -- those are two things that are usually off-limits."

Rosevelt Colvin: The closest thing to a hammer in the group. "My game has never been speed and strength," he says. "It's about using my head." Winslow Townson/AP

Says Vrabel, "It started going in a direction where it wasn't funny anymore. We were always trying to see who could have the upper hand, and it was reaching a point where two knuckleheads were just going to end up fighting each other. So we stopped."
On the field Vrabel is Belichick's good soldier. He flourished as a 3-4 outside linebacker for four full seasons, but he was moved inside to replace Bruschi during the 2005 season and again for the last five games of last year, after Seau broke his right forearm. Vrabel's a weapon on goal line offense too: Against Washington in Week 8 he caught his 10th career touchdown pass, to go with 13 tackles, three sacks and three forced fumbles -- one of the more phenomenal stat lines for a defender in recent memory. "Student of the game," says Thomas.
Garrett, whose Cowboys were manhandled by New England in Dallas on Oct. 14, says, "Vrabel knows that scheme so well. First, he's a Sam [strongside] linebacker, then he's a Will [weakside] linebacker. Hand on the ground, then no hand on the ground. Incredible versatility." He's unpredictable, and, just as important, unselfish and unassuming. As Vrabel says, "I don't need a great story told about me to feel like I've had a good career."
If Vrabel is the Swiss Army knife of this group, Colvin is the closest thing to a hammer. On nearly every snap he is attacking off the edge with the kind of energy that spurred the Pats to sign him to a seven-year, $30 million free-agent contract in 2003, after he had totaled 21 sacks in the previous two years for the Bears. On Sept. 14 of his first season in New England, he stumbled while trying to recover a fumble and dislocated his left hip.
His recovery has been laborious. In the weeks after the injury his hip would slip out of joint as he sat on the edge of his bed to get dressed. He started only one game in 2004 and 11 in '05, finishing with seven sacks. Last year he started 15 games and had 8 1/2 sacks. He hasn't missed a game this season, ringing up 22 tackles and three sacks. Against Indy on Sunday his late fumble recovery killed the Colts' last drive. "I'm still trying to get back to the player that was advertised when they signed me," Colvin, 30. "Fortunately my game has never been speed and strength. It's been about using my head."
Speed and strength. That would be Thomas, the free-agent prize of the 2007 off-season, a 6' 2" specimen whose skill set -- a defensive end's power, a linebacker's hands, a safety's speed -- defies belief. "For a guy that big to run that fast," says Phifer, "it's just not fair."
Thomas also holds his own in the survivor department. At age 14 he was a passenger in a heavy-metal 1966 Ford Galaxie driven by his 18-year-old brother, Evoris, that was involved in a head-on collision near their home in Equality, Ala. Adalius's head smashed into the windshield, and it took more than 400 stitches to close the wounds. Years later he was still picking glass out of his scalp in the shower. A thick scar marks his forehead. "Good thing the car was a big old antique," says Thomas, "or I'd probably be dead."

Mike Vreabel: The Pats' good soldier has 10 career TDs. "I don't need a great story told about me," he says, "to feel like I've had a good career." Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

He was selected in the sixth round of the 2000 draft out of Southern Mississippi and needed three seasons to become a starter on the stacked Ravens defense, where he lined up all over the field. The Patriots put Thomas at inside linebacker and have kept him there. "Playing one position is an adjustment," says Thomas. "But I came here with an open mind. These guys were good long before I got here."
Nobody savors Belichick's system more than Seau does. Here's the proof: After 16 seasons -- the last three of them, with the Dolphins, unsatisfying -- he was finished. Seau announced his retirement (he called it a "graduation") on Aug. 14, 2006. Four days later he signed with the Pats. "Bill Belichick called Junior directly," says Seau's longtime agent, Marvin Demoff. "He asked what it would take to get Junior to come to New England. And it was not a financial discussion."
What it took, predictably, was a chance to leave pro football with a ring. Seau, the only first-round draft pick of the bunch (Chargers, 1990), made 12 straight Pro Bowls from '91 through 2002, during which he averaged more than 116 tackles per year and earned a reputation as one of the most energetic, instinctive linebackers in the history of the game. "But the thing he kept coming back to," says Demoff, "was the joy he had with [San Diego coach] Bobby Ross when they went to the Super Bowl in 1994."
Says Seau, "I'm not about the [personal honors] anymore. I'm not about the Pro Bowls."
The Patriots signed him to a one-year, $1 million deal for '06 with another potential $500,000 in incentives based on playing time. In Week 11 he broke both bones in his right forearm making a tackle; two plates and 14 screws were surgically inserted, and Seau and the team patiently waited until late May to agree on one more dance. Vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli signed Seau to the same deal, but in late August, Pioli called Demoff and told him that the team was removing a clause in the contract that would have limited Seau's compensation if he was injured early in the season. "He's been such a positive influence around here," Pioli told Demoff, "that we no longer need that protection."
Seau has taken a minimalist approach to his sunset seasons. He moved into a condo in Boston, while his wife and three children remained in San Diego. "I brought three pair of jeans, four T-shirts and a suit that I keep in my locker for games," says Seau. "I get up in the morning and I play football. It's a simple life at this point for me." Like Bruschi and Thomas, he has accepted Belichick's three-man inside linebacker platoon with no public complaint.
After a decade and a half as one of the most prolific freelancing linebackers in the game's history, Seau has found a middle ground between his own instincts and the system. "He's toned it down," says Garrett, "but on some plays you can see where his freelancing helps them. It can be confusing to the offense."
In the locker room Seau has brought a fresh excitement to the corporate efficiency of the Patriots. "Energizer Bunny," says Thomas. "Full of that emotion." On Sept. 16, the first Sunday after the Patriots were caught videotaping the Jets' defensive signals, it was Seau whose voice was loudest, circling the room and imploring that everyone play for the honor of the franchise and the coach. Three weeks later, on one of his two interceptions against Cleveland, he held the ball at arm's length in traffic on his runback, a silly, celebratory act of pure joy.
Appreciation drives Seau, as it drives them all. On a midweek morning he walks down one of the long, wide hallways at field level of Gillette Stadium. Patriots players are loath to express what might lie ahead, but they all see it. "I live day to day, and I do not look ahead," says Seau. "But you do know it's something special that's been put together with this team and these guys. I'm in a good place."
He breaks into a jog, then passes through a wide archway and into the autumn sunshine, living just another beautiful day in the 'backerhood.




source:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...112/index.html

Slimdust

zzzZZZzzz............

PS3 Online Name: xJimmyx23

www.haulingkings.com

Joe Cool

Administrator

There hasn't been good stories about the Pats until now?

I find that hard to believe.

They deserve respect....I think the media is showing it adequately.

Twist of Lemon

Meh at them, Seau is the only good one >.>

Suntan Superman

WC's Resident Samoan

Good for them. They're all good players who I'd love to have on my team. Now the Pats need to start drafting guys like this.

Colvin - Bears
Thomas - Ravens
Vrabel - Steelers
Seau - Chargers

When you can draft guys like that, it says a lot about your team. So good job Getting Bruschi, Parcells

CM Drunk

THAT was funny!


Thats the most retarded line anyone has ever posted about sports, ever.

I know. The Patriots dont know how to draft. I mean...

Brady
Graham
Seymour
Watson
Wilfork
Maroney
Branch
Samuel

Yeah, Pioli and belichick dont know what there doing.

Just stop, your making yourself look dumb.

Twist of Lemon

Your the most retarded thing anyones said about sports

Seriously though I love me some Junior Seau, The rest I could really care less for. Thomas and Bruschi rub me the wrong way, like most Patriots/Patriots fans do >_>.

CM Drunk

^^Ill rub something the wrong way across your face!

Suntan Superman

WC's Resident Samoan

I'm sorry, I didn't realize the article was on Brady, Graham, Samuel, Branch, etc. etc. Could you point out where they were mentioned? I was talking about linebackers, just like the article. And I guess from across the nation, I can stop making the Pats look bad, it seems their fans are doing a well enough job of it.

CM Drunk