Advertisement

Do not cross Patriots center Bryan Stork, who cared not for my questions

Do not cross Patriots center Bryan Stork, who cared not for my questions

PHOENIX — One of the more interesting matchups for Super Bowl XLIX could be how and whether the New England Patriots are able to attack the middle of the Seattle Seahawks defense with the power run game.

The Seahawks have looked vulnerable at times up the gut. The Patriots have turned into more of a power-run team over time, especially after the return of running back LeGarrette Blount.

So naturally I wanted to seek out Patriots rookie center Bryan Stork, who struggled early in the season but has improved steadily over the course of the year. That is, until Stork suffered a knee injury against the Baltimore Ravens and missed the AFC championship game.

Stork has been practicing, at least on a limited basis, since then so there's a good chance he'll be able to go Sunday.

Knowing the Patriots' penchant for sidestepping injury talk, I instead wanted to ask Stork about a number of other topics — how the offense has come along since the early-season struggles, how his experience in the national title game with Florida State helped prep him for this moment and how the Seahawks looked defensively inside.

Fairly benign topics, I thought. Boy, was I wrong.

After not spotting Stork early in the media session, I first sought out Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who had mostly good things to say about his rookie pivot. I also chatted with his fellow offensive linemen, Dan Connolly and Sebastian Vollmer, as well as fellow rookie, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who bonded in training camp.

All had interesting things to say. But Stork — once I located him — did not.

I asked a public-relations assistant if he had seen Stork, and he informed me that he left for a bit to use the facilities. Stork returned from those duties, and I reached out my hand to introduce myself to him and start my line of questioning. He looked rather upset that I had found him, and it got progressively worse from there. Really, the whole thing was doomed from the beginning.

Me: "I wanted to ask you about your experience a year ago at the national championship game with Florida State. Do you think that environment can help prepare you for a Super Bowl, if you're able to play?"

Stork: "Well, that was last year. I am just worried about right now."

Me: "You don't think playing in a high-pressure game like that one can give you an idea of what Sunday's atmosphere might be like?"

Stork: "No, I am just preparing right now."

Ok, so we got off to a bad start. Time for a refresh. A new tactic: I thought I might ease my way back in through the back door a bit.

Me: "Well, I want to ask you about Week 4, your first start ..."

Stork: "When was this?"

Me: "Week 4."

Stork: "What about it?"

Me: "How far have you come as an offense since—"

Stork: "What happened Week 4?"

Me: "You lost a game to the Kansas City Chiefs. I think it was 41-14, if I remember correctly."

Stork: "Oh, that game? Oh. What about it."

At this point, steam slowly issued from his ears. If this was a one-on-one blocking drill, to use offensive-line parlance, he would have pancaked me three straight reps. His game is intimidation and power, so it's not stunning that his off-field body of work treaded on similar themes.

I had the distinct feeling I was not stumbling upon the threshold to a Pulitzer at this moment.

Me: "I think that was your first start. People in New England seemed to be in panic mode over the team. People were saying 'Bench Brady.' But you were able to turn on the jets offensively after that. How were you able to make such a major improvement from that point until now?"

Stork: "We've just been trying to work hard and prepare for the game."

I see what's happening here. Still, I remained calm. I wasn't trying to break the young man; what good would that do? It just seemed that, with his teammates giving him credit for his hard work, it might be good to get his own perspective on what his rookie season has been like.

After all, snapping to Tom Brady and trying to master all the protection calls and intricacies of the offense that Brady knows rote has to be a daunting challenge for a first-year player. If that was indeed the case, Stork has zero interest in talking about it. Less than zero maybe.

Me: "You're not much of a self-promoter, I am guessing. That sort of fits the dynamic of this team, doesn't it? Team first, right?"

Stork: "I am just trying to answer your question."

Well, not really. But at this point, I swear, his eyes turned blood-oath red. Have you seen this man? He's a 6-4, 313-pound redhead with a lumberjack's beard. Had I not been in a room with several thousand other witnesses, I might have made a run for the nearest fire exit immediately. I was going down in flames.

OK, Bryan, so you're focused on Seattle? Then so am I, as far as this chat is concerned. Let's talk us some Seattle.

Me: "When you look at this Seattle front, they seem to have a lot of quickness and penetration ability. What makes them so effective up front?"

Stork: "They're good, they're big, they're fast, they're physical."

And that was that. I thanked him for his time and found the closest salvation I knew of: Garoppolo.

The cherub-faced rookie quarterback (whom my wife sat up and took keen notice of on draft weekend last May) was a great chat I discovered when we talked extensively on his pro day before he was drafted in the second round by the Patriots. He speaks easily, and often with a smile, and would provide me some much-needed post-Stork salvation. I asked Garoppolo about the center, who was drafted two rounds later, and how they've gotten to know each other as rookies.

"Well, we were in the Senior Bowl together," Garoppolo said, "so I knew him before we were actually drafted here. But playing with him there, I realized ... he's a badass."

That's one way of putting it.

"He's a hard-nosed dude, and that's what you want in your linemen," Garoppolo said. "Just getting in there, doing his job. You can't ask for a better lineman than that."

But about that thing that you call badass and I call downright frightening ...

"He's very serious and a man of few words," Garoppolo said. "But he's a great guy and very intelligent. He knows the whole offense inside and out."

McDaniels was happy to talk about Stork's college experience and what the Patriots saw in Stork coming out of Florida State last year.

"Bryan has played a ton of football on a high level," McDaniels said. "We loved his toughness. We loved his intelligence. His championship pedigree. He's a guy that finishes to the whistle on every play and has a tremendous amount of fortitude.

"Hopefully, he'll be able to go this week."

Still, McDaniels acknowledged that it's a tough chore matching Brady's professorial knowledge of the Patriots' offense and being able to play up to his insanely high standards.

"It's not seamless," McDaniels said. "It wouldn't have been for anybody. Sometimes at the beginning of the season you have to kind of demonstrate some patience as an offense. We were not playing as well as we wanted to earlier in the year.

"But there was a building process that was happening. We needed some people to grow into their roles. There were some people we were pushing, but they were not quite ready yet, and Bryan would fall into that category."

So how has Stork — and the offense — been able to develop so much since that Week 4 disaster?

"I think his first game, wire to wire, was that Kansas City game," McDaniels said. "I mean, it wasn't a great experience for any of us. Bryan came back that next Tuesday a better player because of all the things he had gone through in the game. He learned a lot from that.

"He and Tom have spent a lot of extra time working together, catching up on the little things that nobody can quite quantify. He's done everything we've asked him to do and done it with a great attitude and work ethic."

And that's all that matters for the Patriots. Much like the Seahawks don't concern themselves too much with Marshawn Lynch's decision not to talk to the media, the Patriots are not spending time worrying about Stork's brusque style publcly either.

Heck, that might have even endured him so much to Bill Belichick, it was the reason they drafted him. Who knows? All I know is that I am glad I am not the one lining up opposite him, whether Stork is injured or not. And at this point, my ego might need more icing than his troublesome knee.

- - - - - - -

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!