Once a hotshot rookie, Wilfork still anchors New England defence
CHANDLER, Ariz. — That time flies is hardly an original sentiment, but it has been a prevailing one in the New England Patriots’ locker room these past two weeks.
In Super Bowl XLVI, New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw plunged over the goal line with less than minute to go to break Patriots hearts — man, that was three years ago?
The David Tyree “Helmet Catch” game is even further in the rearview mirror. Not a single running back nor wide receiver that was on New England’s roster when it went 16-0 in 2007 is there today.
Back then, nose tackle Vince Wilfork was the hot-shot rookie preparing for Super Bowl XXXIX. Now, as New England prepares to take on Seattle on Sunday in version XLIX, Wilfork is the grizzled vet.
“I was coming from college where we won a lot of games,” Wilfork said Wednesday. “I didn’t lose many games in college. I was a national champion in college (at Miami). My first year in the NFL, winning the Super Bowl, I was like, ‘Man, this is easy. I could do this all the time.’ And little did I know, here I am 11 years later.”
Wilfork is 33 now, but he still gets that far-off look in his eye when that 24-21 Super Bowl win over the Eagles comes up.
“Everybody asks me what if feels like to be a Super Bowl champ, and it’s something that you really can’t put into words,” Wilfork said. “It’s just the feeling that you have being a world champion, that everybody looks at you as a world champion.”
The dynasty in waiting never materialized — at least when it came to Super Bowls. Despite having won the AFC East 10 of the past 11 seasons, New England hasn’t won a title since 2004. The Patriots have shuffled rosters and styles, gone from a defence-wins-championships grinder to one of the more consistent offences in the game.
Only three constants have remained: coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and Wilfork.
“I tell him he is getting soft,” Wilfork said of Belichick. “But this is a different era of football now. We were a veteran team, it was a younger team, at one point we were the youngest team in the league. So I think he had to try to find the identity in what works for that team.”
Central to that identity has been Wilfork, as steady a rock for the defence as Brady has been for the offence.
From his front-and-centre position, the six-foot-two, 325pound nose tackle occupies blockers and frees up seams for his teammates to attack. He’s the anchor. New England has shifted through a variety of looks over the years — threeand four-man fronts, with Wilfork’s reliability giving it the freedom to experiment.
For 11 years, he’s been a mainstay of the Patriots’ defence. Though it has been more than a decade, his first Super Bowl feels like it was just yesterday.
“Being on that field after the game with your family and friends, organization, the confetti coming down of your colours and everything runs across your mind,” Wilfork said.
“I always tell people it’s the feeling that you have after being able to win this game, that’s what you’re searching for.”