To say I went back and forth between players 3 and 4 on the top 25 Patriots over the last 25 years would be an understatement. I flip-flopped more times than one of these soccer players in the World Cup. But eventually, I settled on the order, ran it by a couple of my pals, and felt good about my process. Without further ado…
4. Vince Wilfork: Point blank (his favorite phrase), Wilfork was the anchor of the Patriots' defensive line for a decade-plus. An incredibly gifted athlete for his size - he could dunk a basketball (“People look at me and are like, ‘He’s a butterball, he can’t’”) - Wilfork slipped in the draft, the Pats pounced, and the rest is history.
“I remember at that draft in ’04 sitting near Bill, and I think Vince was projected to go in the top 10, and he slipped to 21, and I remember Bill saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that kind of value was there at this point,’" Robert Kraft said at Wilfork’s retirement ceremony. “And I remember how excited he was that we got Vince at that point.”
Four times, Wilfork was either first (2012) or second-team All-Pro (2007, ‘10, ‘11), doing that without the counting stats that usually are required to earn such honors. He played nose tackle to start his career in New England, but as the defense evolved, so did his role. There were times when the coaching staff put Wilfork, who probably never weighed less than 340 pounds (despite being listed at 325), on the edge, and he was just as impactful there as he was closer to the football.
"We just try to keep it moving, and what's best for the team, that's what we're going to always do,” Wilfork said back in 2012. “It may not be best for me, but when my name is called, I'm ready, and ready to make plays if I have to. But if I don't make plays, if I'm playing well and helping my teammates, if I'm freeing up some of my teammates, I'm happy, and if we win, I'm happy.
"When we lose, that's when it becomes a problem. Don't want to lose, I'll tell you that. Hate losing, so I'm going to do everything I can to prevent that."
“Very unselfish,” Bill Belichick said. “We play him in different positions, where we feel like he’s maybe the most needed, not necessarily where it’s going to feature him or give him a great opportunity to make plays. But a lot of times it is to eat up blockers or try to disrupt plays.
“He’s an explosive guy that’s got very good football instincts. He knows where the ball is, he knows what they’re trying to do. He really responded to a lot of the different challenges or positions that we put him in. He’s done a very unselfish job and been very productive.”
Wilfork went from your classic part-time player to an incredible ironman. Check out his snap count percentages during the prime of his career.
2009: 51.8 percent
2010: 69.8 percent
2011: 86.8 percent
2012: 81.3 percent
How remarkable is that? Wilfork may have looked like that butterball, but his strength and stamina down-to-down was noteworthy. The mileage caught up with him in 2013 - he tore his Achilles - but he returned in 2014 and logged another high snap count (74%) and earned his second Super Bowl ring.
"You talk about a guy who could eat three blocks literally and allow a young pup to come through and roam free, he was the guy," Jerod Mayo said of Wilfork at the time of his induction into the team Hall of Fame. "Whatever we asked him to do, line up at defensive and line up at the nose...
“You wanted him in the middle of the defense because they couldn't really run away from him in there, and as soon as we put him at defensive end, they just checked the play to the other side. A guy who could do it all, very athletic, and a smart football player, which I think is sometimes overlooked. A guy who knew where the ball was going, especially in a run game.”
Wilfork’s impact went beyond what he did on the field. He was, according to Belichick, “the captain of captains,” the player that the other captains would have speak on their behalf if it was something they knew Belichick might reject or push back on.
"Vince was also that guy that when he said something, you could hear a pin drop,” Belichick noted. “Nobody else was talking. Nobody else was giving any rebuttal. Nobody else was saying anything other than, 'Yes, sir, Vince, we are behind you. Let's go.' And he always led us down the right path."
You may remember some of the flashier plays Wilfork made over the course of his career - that hit on Buffalo’s Donald Jones still makes me want to chest bump whoever is next to me - but to me, beyond the week-to-week consistency, it was the 2011 AFC title game against Baltimore. Wilfork had six tackles - three for loss - four QB hurries, and a sack. Film study showed he was double- or triple-teamed 10 times. It didn’t matter. That was a man on a mission.
Wilfork played 67 of 70 snaps, and on one of the very last ones, he shot in the backfield and stopped Ray Rice for a three-yard loss and third-and-short. That forced the Ravens to trot out Billy Cundiff, and you know what happened next.
“When he gets to rocking and rolling, we all get to rocking and rolling with him,’’ DL Kyle Love said that night. “Definitely a good leader and I love that guy, man.
“I see this look in his eye. He gets this look in his eye and I know it’s time to go, it’s time to put up and play ball. He had it from the start of the week. He’s been talking to us, and getting us right, getting us enthusiastic and everything.’’
A few other notes on Wilfork:
- Both of his parents passed away while he was at the University of Miami. When that subject would come up, the big fella would always get emotional, even years later. That always struck me. There was a void in his life, and no amount of success could fill it.
“My parents didn’t get a chance to see their son live out a dream he told them at the age of 4 I was going to be,” Wilfork said at the time of his retirement. “Physically, it hurt every day. It hurt by the hour. Daily. Not a minute [went] by, but I know they had the best seat in the house.”
- Perhaps because of that loss, Wilfork grew very close with the Krafts. He was always the last guy off the field after pregame warm-ups and would give Robert and Myra a kiss on the cheek. After she passed, Wilfork continued the tradition, giving Robert a kiss and then another “for mama.”
- It wasn’t always rosy. Wilfork had a couple of well-publicized contract disputes with the Pats. He “won” both, though the last led to his departure (he played a couple of seasons in Houston).
- I’ve never dealt with a player who, when he got on a roll, would just talk and talk and talk. By the time he’d finish, I’d forget what the original question was. But what was great about it was - most times - there were answers to questions you didn’t even pose but in Wilfork’s mind needed answering. It was a bitch to transcribe, but worth it for glimpses into how he thought and how the team and/or defense thought. Plus, when he laughed, everyone laughed. It was infectious.