FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Slowly buttoning his blue dress shirt minutes after trudging off the football field at Gillette Stadium, Texans veteran nose tackle Vince Wilfork acknowledged that this was probably the final game of his richly fulfilling career.
A five-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots, Wilfork was taken out of the game late in the fourth quarter by Texans coach Bill O'Brien. It was a classy gesture so Wilfork could get an appreciative cheer from the Patriots' faithful who had rooted for him for 11 seasons after he was drafted in the first round out of the University of Miami.