Former Pats Player Talks

Ross Tucker talks about how the Pats did business during his time in NE. He says it wasnt uncommon that a player that was on IR was allowed to practice with the team, he says he asked Troy Brown about it and Brown responded by saying "every team in the league does it" Tucker says he responded non of the 3 previous teams he played for ever did that. Here's something else he said

"I remember a game earlier in my career during which I was assigned to stand on the sidelines and watch Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer on every play, dutifully looking for the specific signal I had been told to watch for. Once I identified that Zimmer had in fact called for the blitz, I alerted a member of the coaching staff, who waved a red flag to the offensive linemen on the field, making sure they were aware that the designated blitz was coming. I distinctly remember times when I wasn't sure whether Zimmer had signaled the blitz, and deciding I wouldn't say anything to our staff unless I was completely confident. It wouldn't have been good, of course, for my fellow linemen to be looking for and anticipating a blitz that never came. The thing is, although I think it helped my team's cause to some extent -- we picked up that stunt on a couple of occasions -- we still lost the game."