Retired Super Bowl Champion Praises Patriots Culture

New England Patriots

Getty New England Patriots

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t seems as if the entire NFL enjoys trashing the New England Patriots and their culture but one former player is defending the team.

Especially during their Super Bowl winning seasons, New England’s no-nonsense culture caught the attention of those around the league. Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Lane Johnson called the Patriots a “fear-based organization” and that players in New England were robots.

Long recently spoke out against that statement in an interview on Tom E. Curran’s Patriots Talk Podcast.

“Lane opened his mouth,” Long told Curran. “Lane got walked into that and it just stuck. And of course, everybody was like, ‘Oh, Lane is best buddies with Chris. Chris is the one who said it.’ That always bothered the hell out of me, because all I’ve ever said is positives about New England and my teammates there.

“We did have fun,” he added. “I put on a Jules (Julian Edelman) mask. We were drunk as hell at the parade. We would enjoy the plane rides. Bill would let us sit in first class, which was awesome. Other coaches never did that and always complained about that.”

Long also enjoyed the group of players he got to play with while in New England.

“We had a tight-knit group,” he said. “It was awesome man, the locker room was great. So I hated being misrepresented by association with that thing, because I did have fun up there.”


Have any Players Recently Spoke Out Against New England?

Ahead of the Patriots Week 9 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, a former undrafted free agent who signed with New England spoke about the effects of his time with the team.

Pro Bowl cornerback Kenny Moore III nearly quit football due to his time with the Patriots.

“That was one of the low spots of my life,” Moore said, “Because that’s really when I felt like, ‘I’m probably not built for the league.’ And having that feeling of, ‘You’re not good enough,’ that’s a bad feeling. You feel like you don’t belong. I lost all of my joy and passion. I didn’t even want to play football. I didn’t want to go to work anymore. I was depressed. I was trying to fight my way out of it.

“It just felt robotic,” he added. “You don’t want to do anything else but go home and go to sleep because tomorrow is about to be crazy. I really felt like I was in the military. Like, damn.”


Who Did the Patriots Place On Injured Reserve?

The Patriots offensive line took another hit as Marcus Cannon was placed on injured reserve ahead of New England’s Week 9 matchup. The Pats are already without David Andrews who has already been ruled out of the game. Andrews will miss his second-straight game after suffering a concussion on an illegal blindside block by Bears defensive tackle Mike Pennel, a block that Pennel was later fined for.

In a corresponding move, the Patriots promoted running back J.J. Taylor to the 53-man roster, taking Cannon’s spot. Taylor and Rhamondre Stevenson are the only running backs who are not dealing with injuries.

 

 

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