FOXBORO, MA — By the time next season rolls around, nearly the entire cast of players who protected quarterback Drew Bledsoe during the 1996 Superbowl may all have been replaced. Yesterday New England cut one of those players when they opted to release veteran guard Todd Rucci.
Rucci, who signed a five-year, $10 million deal with a $2.8 million bonus following the 1997 season, underwent surgery last spring and missed the entire training camp with the injury and was placed with rookie Adrian Klemm on the physically unable to perform list before the start of the season. Rucci had reportedly recovered from the surgery, but nevertheless Belichick made the decision to release him.
“Todd’s really done a good job for this organization,” said Belichick. “He was here in ’96 when I was here, I know him pretty well. It was a very difficult decision to make and basically the clock had run out. We had to make a decision as to whether we would either activate him or not activate him, and putting him back on injured reserve really wasn’t a legitimate option. So that was a decision that we made and it was a tough one.”
Belichick says that despite Rucci’s release, he’s not going to close the door on a possible return for the veteran guard this season.
“I spoke with Todd yesterday,” said Belichick. “I don’t want to close the door on anything. This situation could change here in day, in a week, in two weeks, I don’t know when we could need a guard, but right now that’s the way it stands.”
The Patriots are still charged with $2.1 million on the salary cap for Rucci. By cutting him with two years remaining on his contract, the Patriots will be charged with a $1.2 million hit on the cap next season, despite the fact he’s no longer on the team. Despite Rucci’s financial downside to the team Belichick said it had nothing to do with his release.
“It wasn’t really a financial consideration because everybody who’s on our roster now is on our roster,” said Belichick. “We’re under the cap as every team in the league is, and we have what we have.”
“That really wasn’t the consideration. The main consideration was just that we would have to release players to bring players onto the roster whether it was Todd or anybody else. He had an exemption based on the status that he was under, and that was about to expire and so we had to make the call one way or the other. As I’ve been saying I think that our [current] guards are improving.”
Quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who is a close friend of Rucci, said unfortunately the NFL is a tough business and he’s sorry to see him go.
“This is a tough business, and it’s hard to see a guy like Rucci go,” said Bledsoe Wednesday. “First of all he’s a close personal friend of mine and that makes it hard, but also he’s a guy that protected me for 7-years, he did a good job at that.”
“It’s a tough one to take because Rucci was a guy that did everything that was ever asked of him by the organization. I don’t think in 7 1/2 years I don’t know don’t know that he ever missed anything or was fined. I think he did everything he was asked by the organization, so it’s a tough one to take.”
“Rucci and I came in together, I was the best man at his wedding and we’re going to spend a ton of time together during the offseason. I won’t see him everyday, but that’s one of the things in this business that you have to be able to do is value those friendships that you make even when a guy moves along.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
