The Whisperer Remembers ... Tony Collins.

East Carolina isn’t even a state, but that doesn’t stop them from playing a mean brand of football or turning out some really good players. From passers to receivers and one particular runner who ended up in Foxborough … and ended up helping them make an improbable Super Bowl run. During those days a team from South Florida got all the press, all the news, and all the love, but that all changed with this cat stepped into the backfield wearing the red, white, and blue.

He was shifty and fast; the kind of combination that gives defenders fits on gameday and gives defensive coordinators fits the day before the game. He was big enough to do the dirty work on the inside, willing to take on whomever showed up to protect his quarterback, and when he got outside, he always put on a show. A Pro Bowler, he changed uniforms a time or two in his day, but his hey days came as a Patriot, and we’ll forever remember him as such.

Whisperer Nation, let’s give a rousing round of applause for a man who never shied away from contact, a battle, or a dive play up the middle. A man who made catching it out of the backfield look like a work of art, art only a man of his talent could paint, please join me in celebrating … former New England Patriots running back … Mr. Tony Collins.