Patriots’ Aging Linebackers Say Check the Record

GLENDALE, Ariz. _ They are not your typical snowbirds who come to Arizona for the warmth and the sun. Just the Super Bowl. Junior Seau turned 39 days ago, which makes him a certifiable antique among NFL linebackers. New England inside linebacker Tedy Bruschi is a stroke survivor in his 12th NFL season, and he’s hinting at retirement after Sunday’s game. Next to them, 11-year veteran Mike Vrabel can actually brag about being young despite the flecks of gray in his brushcut hair and beard.

Together they constitute three-quarters of a New England linebacking corps that _ excluding 30-year-old Adalius Thomas _ is often accused of being too old and slow and vulnerable. They have an answer for that, of course. "We are old," Bruschi has laughed.

And so what? Maybe it’s enough to be very, very smart. As Seau can tell you, there are a lot of ways to lose a half-step that have more to do with being unable to read a play than your age or diminishing foot speed. In case no one noticed _ and not many people did amid Tom Brady’s three-interception performance or Wes Welker’s seven catches or Laurence Maroney’s rushing in the AFC title game _ but it was Seau and Bruschi and Vrabel who made three of the biggest plays in the Patriots’ touch-and-go win after the Chargers drove inside the Patriots’ 22-yard line once and inside the 10 another three times.

That was the supposedly lead-footed Bruschi who broke up a pass at the goal line intended for Chargers Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates.

That was Vrabel, still highly irritated at himself for giving up a pass completion on a previous play, blitzing Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers and smacking him just enough with a leg whip that didn’t get called, forcing Rivers into a bad throw that was intercepted.

That was Seau shooting a gap in the Chargers’ line like he was 25 again and stuffing running back Michael Turner on a third-and-2 play in the third quarter for a 2-yard loss.

The Chargers had to settle for field goals in all four trips. It was the difference between being in Super Bowl XLII or not. And the Giants have noticed.

Eli Manning said one of the reasons the Giants pushed the unbeaten Patriots to the brink before losing, 38-35, in their regular-season finale is "when we got inside the red zone, we were able to score touchdowns." This time around, Manning said, the Giants have to remain aware of the Pats’ linebackers.

"You have to be able to answer their blitzes and play a mistake-free game," Manning said. "They’re not overly complicated. if you do move the ball, they will come with the blitzes … They try to get a sack, big plays. That’s how they end drives."

All of them are dangerous. Bruschi has been known throughout the Patriots’ dynastic run for making clutch plays, and his return to the NFL after a stroke has made him a sentimental story. Medical experts couldn’t 100-percent guarantee him a device inserted in his heart couldn’t be jarred loose by, say, a hit in a game. Now his wife has instituted what Bruschi calls "a three-second rule": No matter how many 300-pounders fall on him, he had to promise her in three seconds he’ll be standing back up.

Vrabel has always been one of the players hoisted up as an epitome of the versatility Belichick asks of his team. He’s moved from inside to outside linebacker during his career and moonlighting as a touchdown-catching tight end in the Patriots’ goal-line offense.

Seau, in just two seasons with the Patriots, is a team captain who’s here to cross off one of the last items on his personal kick-the-bucket list. He’s never won a Super Bowl. Like Vrabel or Bruschi, Seau says he never knows what coach Bill Belichick might ask of him week to week.

Seau says one big difference between his heyday in San Diego, where he often freelanced to his heart’s content as a younger star linebacker, is "there’s a system here … It’s like subcontracting a plumber or a roofer. Although you may be a plumber, Belichick would say, `Go fix the roof.’ If you worked on cabinets, Belichick will say, `We want you to go work on this tree in the yard.’ You have to be versatile and you have to be able to adjust. In this scheme, you have to be able to do more than just plug the `A’ and `B’ gap. You really do."

It’s a lot to ask of anyone, especially three guys in the latter part of their careers. But Bruschi has the perfect answer to all that talk they’re supposedly older, slower, not what they used to be.

"What’s our record this season?" Bruschi laughed. "What’s our record?"