Looking through articles tonight I came accross one that I thought fans might want to be aware of.
Not to pick on him, but Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports threw out a statement that unfortunately unless he's got a real reason to back it up, it's enough to raise an eyebrow for Patriots fans who have to believe it's way off base.
As Cole breaks down 3-4 defenses throughout the NFL, he makes a statement regarding Vince Wilfork that sounds more like something he's actually heard instead of an opinion.
"There's a lot of concern with the Patriots management that Vince Wilfork is going to bloat now that he has gotten paid."
That statement basically would leave the average fan to believe that someone within Patriots management actually believes that Wilfork is going to underperform this season now that he's gotten a new contract. It's kind of funny to hear considering that there have been no such reports this offseason regarding this subject from any other member of the Boston media.
Wilfork signed a contract extension with New England back on March 9th. Prior to that the Patriots had utilized their 2010 franchise designation on him on February 22nd.
As I mentioned a while back with Michael Silver's piece regarding Tom Brady's contract, when you have a national audience you really need to be careful about what is thrown out there, and that sentence just seems like a silly thing to say unless there really is something to back it up.
But it is what it is. Fans know what Wilfork brings to the table, and so far through minicamps he seems on track to pick up where he left off last season. His offseason has more or less appeared to be business as usual, with the veteran nose tackle actively involved with charities and events with his fellow players. There were also no reports of him appearing overweight during any of the minicamps or OTA's.
Needless to say it's been an interesting offseason considering a lot of what's been written. As for me, I have to say that it will just be nice once training camp begins - hopefully then these types of reports will finally go away.
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