Wilfork finishes where it all started
FOXBORO — A somber and reflective Vince Wilfork lingered in the visitors locker room last night at Gillette Stadium.
A 34-16 loss to the Patriots ended his Houston Texans’ season, and might have also ended the nose tackle’s career. Prior to the playoffs, Wilfork intimated that he would retire at season’s end, and he echoed that sentiment at the stadium where the former Pats leader played the first 11 years of his career.
“I’ll take my time and think about it, but I think I’ve played my last NFL football game,” Wilfork said. “But I’ll take my time off and do my due diligence and sit back and see if I really want to retire. We’ll see and I don’t know how long that is going to take, but we’ll see.”
Wilfork looked like a man who’s spent 13 NFL seasons being double-teamed at the point of attack, occupying the harshest terrain in professional sports. And he sounded like a man who had played his last game.
Wilfork was the 21stoverall pick out of the University of Miami in the 2004 NFL draft. He went to five Pro Bowls and made four All-Pro teams before he left for Houston as a free agent after the 2014 season.
During the final minute, Wilfork’s image was projected on the videoboard behind the north end zone at Gillette. Patriots fans responded with a loud ovation that Wilfork willingly acknowledged. Amidst the postgame chaos on the field, Wilfork was congratulated by several former teammates and enjoyed a few private moments with Pats defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
“It doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed every bit of my career,” Wilfork said. “I enjoyed 11 great years in New England and two great years in Texas with unbelievable teammates. I could not have had any better teammates from both organizations, and you are talking about organizations that are the top of the class. Two owners anyone would want to play for.”
The Houston defense put up a good fight for three quarters, but the Texans offense didn’t fully take advantage the short fields it was provided.
“Any time you lose it’s tough and we battled like we are supposed to battle, and to walk away with (a loss) is tough,” Wilfork said. “You can’t just play bad football at critical moments, but we fought and the Patriots did what they needed to do to win tonight. I thought we controlled most of the game until toward the end when it got out of hand. We went in to stop the run and made them one-dimensional and got off the field defensively and got some turnovers for our offense.”