FOXBOROUGH — By his own admission, Patriots special teams whiz Matthew Slater is no spring chicken.
“It’s no mystery a guy in Year 11 is not a spring chicken, but I still love the game,’’ the 32-year-old Slater said last week after making his first appearance in pads at training camp following an undisclosed injury. “I still feel like I have a lot to give.’’
In fact, players of Slater’s mold, who rely on speed as a means of production and are often funneled into violent kickoff-return scrums, aren’t built to last a decade in the NFL.