They really don't give a damn, honestly. As long as you ain't in the meeting they really don't give a (expletive)."The situation arose at a critical time for the Patriots (75) and could be a distraction heading into Sunday's game in Foxborough against the Carolina Panthers (57). New England's AFC East lead is down to one game after losses in three of the last four games."Your focus should be on Carolina, but instead it's on this whole topic of being late," Thomas said.Patriots players rarely question Belichick publicly, often echoing his bland comments about their performances and upcoming opponents.For us, it's not to go pushing and throwing punches, it's to lock up and protect yourself. And Joe did that about as well as you could do it. If you call somebody for that then you're going to have 30 flags, 30 times.

Scoreboards filled up with points at a record pace in 2012. Defensive gurus scratched their heads trying to deal with readoptions and spread attack