Aaron Hernandez was a big factor in his last championship game, helping Florida beat Oklahoma in 2009. (AP)

FOXBORO — You would think when your nephew or brother is as successful as Aaron Hernandez is for the Patriots, you would automatically cheer for the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

But then again, Hernandez did grow up right on the border of Giants and Patriots territory in Connecticut.

Some thing he admitted Friday still plays a factor in allegiances as the two team square off in Super Bowl XLVI.

“My uncle is a Giants fan,” Hernandez said. “I have a few Giants fans in the family. D.J. [Hernandez, Aaron’s older brother] hopefully now is a Patriots fan.”

Hernandez played in the national championship in 2008, as the Gators beat Oklahoma and a year later, played in the Sugar Bowl, helping Tim Tebow and company destroy undefeated Cincinnati, 51-24.

“Yeah, big-game experience helps because you know what’s at stake and you know how to go about getting ready,” Hernandez said.

D.J. Hernandez played quarterback and wide receiver for the UConn Huskies before Aaron decided on a change of heart and attended Florida.

But Aaron has been a loyal Patriots fan from the get-go, which makes his first trip to the biggest of big games that much sweeter, though Hernandez said he did have allegiances to another team.

“I think Detroit Lions because of Barry Sanders but both of us kind of liked all teams,” Hernandez said. “I was a fan of the Patriots just because the first jersey I had was [Drew Bledsoe] and his first jersey was Barry Sanders.”

Fan loyalties aside, Hernandez will be ready to put aside family obligations for the week and concentrate on the task at hand when the team arrives in Indianapolis this weekend.

“I don’t think you have to worry about distractions coming into a game like this because if you can’t stay focused for the Super Bowl you probably got a problem but I heard there are a lot of distractions but I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Hernandez said, adding there’s a little more juice in preparations for this game.

“I would say a little more intense but you still have to approach it like it’s just another game and you can’t get too worked up or too excited just got to take it like a regular game and get mentally prepared and come mentally prepared and be ready to play,” he said.

FOXBORO — Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker was back in the Patriots locker room but not at the start of practice Tuesday, as he spoke before practice about his neck injury from Saturday night in Detroit. Welker said he feels better than he did after he tackled Ricardo Silva and brought him to the ground after Silva’s interception of Tom Brady late in the first half of the 34-10 loss to the Lions.

“I’m OK,” Welker said. “They guy made a good play on the ball and I needed to make the tackle so I went in there and made the tackle, got him down.”

Asked if he thought he could be ready for the Giants this Thursday, Welker said he’s leaving all decisions and comment up to head coach Bill Belichick and the medical staff.

“Whatever coach decides on that, I’m fully in on whatever he says,”I think anything that has to do with that part of your body is always scary but we have good doctors and good trainers and I wasn’t too worried about it.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tom Brady could never shake the Lions pressure as Nate Solder and the O-Line took shots to the face.

The stat sheet was as ugly as the game was brutal for Tom Brady.

He was banged up and around the entire time he was out on the field during a 34-10 walloping at the hands of the Lions Saturday night at Ford Field in Detroit.

Brady was hit six times, hurried four times, sacked once and intercepted once. Several times through the game, TV cameras caught Brady on the sideline talking with receivers Wes Welker and Chad Ochocinco.

“Well it wasn’t our best game, obviously,” Brady said. “From the first series on, we just could never really get into a rhythm. It was a bad night all around. We don’t make excuses for it, it just wasn’t a good night. We didn’t play the way we need to play, missed open receivers and careless interception there. You’re not going to win games if you play like that. There’s only one way to get back, get out to practice and get back to work and try to improve the things we didn’t do very well and hopefully play better next week.”

As for all those hits and hurries, Brady wasn’t about to throw his offensive line under the bus, or Danny Woodhead – for that matter – either for failing to pick up a blitzer or rusher.

“I think we were trying to get the ball down the field a little bit so you’re going to hold it,” Brady said. “They have a good pass rush. We held up out there for a decent amount of time. I have to do a better job of making quicker decisions and getting rid of the football and getting it to the guys who can do something with it.”

Is this the ultimate teaching lesson for Brady, Belichick and the Pats?

“I don’t necessarily think losing games and playing poorly ever helps,” Brady said. “I think we have to understand like every week, when you play well there are things you need to do better and when you lose, there are things you need to do better.”

In the end, Brady attempted philosophical perspective when looking at a very ugly preseason loss.

“You don’t want to ride the wave of emotions of, ‘Oh, you’re great and we suck, and we’re great we suck.’ We’re confident as a team. We just have to go play better,” Brady said. “That’s up to each of us individually and coach always says, ‘do your job.’ and he means it. When I’m the starting quarterback, and he says do your job, I have to do it very well. That what he expects of me and what I expect of myself. We’re going to go out there [Thursday] and try to do a lot better job.”

He’ll get one more preseason shot this Thursday against the Giants to get ready to do his job, starting Sept. 12 in Miami.

Matthew Stafford has given Lions fans a lot to smile about after an 0-16 season in 2008.

The Patriots look to continue their preseason dominance tonight at Ford Field in Detroit (8 p.m. ET, WBZ-TV) but the task could be a lot more difficult than the first two conquests. The 2-0 Patriots travel to Motown to battle a 2-0 Lions team that some believe could challenge the Packers this year for supremacy atop the NFC North.

It was the Brian Hoyer – Ryan Mallett show in a 47-12 laugher over the Jaguars on Aug. 11 at Gillette. That was also the game rookie Stevan Ridley had three touchdowns, including two on the ground. One week later, they destroyed another Florida team, beating up the Buccaneers in the heat and humidity of Tampa, 31-14.

Tom Brady had a good start to the preseason with two touchdowns and a 111.4 rating. Chad Ochocinco had his first TD in a Patriots uniform, an eight-yard grab but caught just two balls for 14 yards.

Will Brady – as has been the case in the past – play into the third quarter in what is usually the “dress rehearsal” game for the regular season? “Coach just tells us to be prepared to play the whole game, all 60 minutes,” Brady said this week when asked about playing time in the third preseason game.

Will Brady – who will be looking across the line at Ndamukong Sug – look to target Ochocinco more than the four times he looked his way in Week 2?

And will we finally see Albert Haynesworth in game action in a Patriots uniform after battling conditioning and legal issues in the first three weeks of camp?

WEEI.com’s Patriots beat writer Chris Price breaks down 10 things to keep an eye on tonight.

Tonight in Detroit, they have a young, strong quarterback in Matthew Stafford, who had helped lead the Lions to preseason wins over the Bengals and Browns. Stafford was 6-of-7 with a pair of touchdowns in a 34-3 rout of the Bengals in the opener on Aug. 12. He followed that up by going 6-of-10 with 85 yards and a TD in a 30-28 win over Browns on the road a week later. He has yet to throw a pick this preseason.

They have a solid core of skill players around him in receivers Calvin Johnson and Nate Burleson and running back Jahvid Best.

But maybe most of all, they have the potential of a devastating defensive line led by Suh, Kyle Vanden Bosch and Corey Williams.

Add to that mix a third-year head coach in Jim Schwartz who has everyone believing in Detroit that this team, the NFL’s only winless team in history in 2008, could be on its way to the playoffs three years later.

Speaking of defensive lines, everyone in New England wants to know if they will see the Patriots debut of Haynesworth, Shaun Ellis and rookie running back Shane Vereen. Then there’s James Sanders.

Sanders – like Vereen – has been battling a sore hamstring that the team has played cautiously, wanting both to be close to full strength before putting them on the field in a game. Tonight might be the time for both to test their respective healing powers.

FOXBORO — Tom Brady remembers the first half last Thanksgiving in Detroit against then-super rookie Ndamukong Suh and the Lions.

The Lions made life tough on Brady, hurrying him several times, with Suh getting through for a sack (see below) on Brady’s first drive, as the Patriots offensive line was back on its heels. The Patriots trailed 17-10 at half before outscoring the Lions, 35-7, in the final two quarters to breeze to victory at Ford Field. Suh didn’t really bother Brady the rest of the game as he finished 21-of-27 for 341 yards, four TDs and a perfect rating of 158.3.

So this Saturday night is probably just the test Brady and the offensive line need to really see if they are close to game-ready for the regular season on Sept. 12.

“We played them last year, too, so we have a very good idea of the issues they present for the front, with the running backs included,” Brady said. “It’s a very talented group – a very talented front, especially pass rushing. They can get after the quarterback, so you’re not going to be standing back there holding onto it for too long – not that we do that very often anyway.”

Of course, it won’t just be Suh but Kyle Vanden Bosch and Corey Williams who can make life tough on Dan Koppen, Logan Mankins, Dan Connolly, Matt Light, Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer.

“But especially a week like this where all those guys really feed off the sacks, the negative plays, their crowd really feeds into it – really what was evidenced by us in the first half of the game last year,” Brady added. “That’s always a concern when you play a team with a good front, so there’s a lot of thought that goes into play calling, and obviously me making quick decisions and getting rid of the ball.”

While not being sacked, Brady was hit several times in the legs, including twice near the knees in last Thursday’s 31-14 win at Tampa. He doesn’t want to get hurt of course, but getting hit, Brady said Wednesday, does serve a purpose.

“That’s part of the preseason process – to have guys sack you and knock you on the ground so your body can kind of callous to those hits. Hopefully not too much, but enough where you can — that’s actually a nice thing to have happen for a quarterback is to get hit you kind of settle into the game because everybody goes out there with some anxiety, some nerves. The offensive linemen, it gets knocked out of them pretty quick because they’re able to hit somebody right across from the line of scrimmage. For a quarterback, it’s nice sometimes to take a hit and you really settle into the game.” Read the rest of this entry »

FOXBORO — Tom Brady said Wednesday he’s hardly shocked by the latest predictions coming from Jets camp that this will finally be the year the Jets win the Super Bowl.

“The Jets? Yeah, well, we’ve heard that for a few years so it’s always… you don’t ever hear us talking too much about that,” Brady said with a smile on Wednesday at the press room podium.

“I think there’s a long ways to go between now and the regular season. We’ve got a very important preseason game coming up and all these preseason games are important for us. It’s so far away at this point.”

The Patriots have outscored their opponents 78-26 in rolling to a 2-0 preseason record so far. They take on Ndamukong Suh and the Detroit Lions this Saturday night at Ford Field in Detroit.

“We’ve got other things on our mind,” Brady added, before being asked if he pays particular attention to the moves the Jets in the offseason.

“Sure, yeah. I pay attention to every team,” he said with a smile.

Then there’s the rival of the Patriots that actually has been to the Super Bowl in Brady’s tenure. And actually Peyton Manning has led the Colts to two Super Bowls, including a winning performance in Super Bowl XLI over the Bears.

But there’s plenty of speculation whether Manning will be calling signals for the Colts in their season-opener against the Texans on Sept. 11. Manning came into the NFL in 1998 and has started all 208 games in his career. With off-season neck surgery, the Colts this week announced the signing of Kerry Collins as an insurance policy should Manning not be able to go. Read the rest of this entry »

FOXBORO — Shaun Ellis has all the motivation in the world to want to play Saturday night against the Lions in the Patriots third preseason game.

He has seen the likes of Vince Wilfork, Kyle Love, Mark Anderson, Mike Wright and Andre Carter fire off against the opposing offensive line.

Now, the 34-year-old veteran entering his 12th NFL season has the chance to play in his first game as a Patriot, and he could be teamed with Albert Haynesworth on Saturday night at Ford Field if everything goes as planned this week in practice and, of course, Bill Belichick is satisfied that both vets are ready for game reps.

Game reps. It’s the preseason lifeblood of defensive linemen who are trying to get their hand and foot techniques in working order for when the bullets start flying for real in the second weekend in September.

Ellis said Tuesday that his first practice this week in full pads [on Monday] went well, and he was joined by Haynesworth on Tuesday.

“It went pretty good,” Ellis said before Tuesday’s practice. “Just getting in the flow and getting my timing back. Just trying to improve every day and going through my routine, just fundamentals of football and just keep persistent with that on game week.”

What will be the key for Ellis and Haynesworth potentially playing together on the D-line? Chemistry.

“We have a lot of guys that’s play-makers and that are good at what they do. We just have to gel, gel together and we’ll see what happens,” Ellis said. “We just have to put work in together. I think once we get together and everyone is there, I think we’ll be OK.”

But what was most telling about his pre-practice session with reporters was what he said about what he hopes to bring on the defensive line. Ellis is hoping to bring the explosive attack Pats fans saw all too often when he was with the Jets, including the two first-half sacks of Tom Brady last January in the playoffs. Read the rest of this entry »