New England Patriots

Bill Belichick and the Patriots continued their concentration on offense at the start of Day 2 of the 2006 draft by selecting tight end/fullback Garrett Mills early in the fourth round. Later in the day the focus turned to size as four of their last five selections all tip the scales at over 260 pounds. Overall, Belichick felt the day yielded value, which is always the Patriots top goal in April.

Normandy High School sits in one of St. Louis’s worst neighborhoods. More members of its freshman class will see a courtroom than a college classroom, police lockdowns are a fact of life, and gangs hold as much sway as guidance counselors.

It’s also where Laurence Maroney, just two days after being introduced as the newest member of the New England Patriots, spent Wednesday afternoon.

He lifted weights with a group of high schoolers for whom he embodies hope. He didn’t turn his back on the school when it would have served his interests, and he won’t start now.

“Everybody always says nobody ever makes it out of Normandy,” Maroney said. “Being the first and being able to open doors for everybody else is a great feeling.”

That’s because he values loyalty above all virtues. He watched childhood teammates like Brandon Williams -- himself drafted last weekend by the 49ers -- leave for more prestigious high schools, but never considered following suit, instead relying on his strong will to avoid the pitfalls that ensnare so many who stay.

“What I can say about him is this -- he’s a loyal guy,” Normandy guidance counselor and track coach Preston Thomas said. “He’s loyal to his community, to his friends, to his family. He went to Washington Elementary, Normandy Middle and his thing was, ‘I’m going to be somebody special for Normandy High.’”

Said drive began the day his mother told him if he failed to achieve his dreams it wouldn’t be because someone stopped him, but because he stopped himself.

So Maroney took his dreams from the meanest streets of St. Louis to the University of Minnesota. And now he’s bound for New England, drafted in the first round by the Patriots. No less an offensive guru than Broncos coach Mike Shanahan believes he will one day be the rest running back in the NFL.

“I always preached for him to decide what he wanted in life and then make it happen,” his mother, Terri Terrell, said. “Draft day Saturday was the ultimate achievement of that.”

Laurence Maroney has a flair for first impressions. He was born Feb. 5, 1985, two months premature. Twice in his first six months, his mother nearly lost him to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, finding him blue in his crib.

“Then that passed,” she said, “and he became a typical mischievous little boy.”

He grew into one of Missouri’s finest athletes and the strong first impressions continued. He routinely stole second, third and home during Little League games.

Normandy High football coach Michael Jackson noticed him in seventh-grade gym class. Within two years he was dunking and running 48-second quarter miles.

He erased plans to redshirt at Minnesota during his first practice and scrimmage, laying out a punt returner with a vicious hit and steamrolling the returning strong safety.

The first carry of his college career yielded a 46-yard touchdown against Tulsa that was negated by holding.

It all comes back to Maroney’s favorite saying.

“I’m from the Show Me State,” he said. “I can show you better than I can tell you.”

He’s shown quite a bit. Despite sharing carries for three seasons at Minnesota, he always topped 1,000 yards, with a high of 1,464 last year. The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder has been timed as fast as 4.33 in the 40-yard dash. His breakaway skills are the stuff of Big Ten legend.

“Three years ago, we couldn’t buy a big play,” said Gophers offensive coordinator Mitch Browning, who recruited him. “All of a sudden we put Maroney back there and he’s a threat to go 80 yards on any play.”

Browning rattles off Maroney’s big runs: 93 yards against Wisconsin, 79 untouched against Iowa, 80 against Michigan, 73 against Tulsa, 80 against Illinois State, 64 against Penn State.

“You’re looking at six yards a carry for 660 attempts,” he said. “You do the math.”

Maroney grew up in a one-story, three-bedroom home on a corner lot in Hanley Hills. It’s in a safe section of St. Louis County, where ambulances race to aid the elderly and police officers mainly write parking tickets.

His mother sold insurance to provide for Laurence and his brother, Willie, 33, and sister Stephannie, 30, her children from a previous marriage. His father lives in St. Louis but is not a part of his life.

They had a simple rule: When the streetlights shined, come home.

“We lived in a neighborhood where everybody took care of everybody else’s kids,” Terrell said. “We always knew where he was.”

School life was different. Built in the late 1920s, Normandy High straddles the line between St. Louis and St. Louis County. Jackson said a “white flight” in the 1970s left the school 99 percent black, which it remains today.

“You can get in trouble here,” said Jackson, a high school and college teammate of former Patriots linebacker Bryan Cox. “You’ve got to be careful. One thing about our neighborhood, it’s got some real rough kids.”

Maroney easily could have been one of them, save for a strong support staff that started with his mother and included best friend Adonis Redman.

“Adonis is a person we knew would always keep Laurence focused,” Terrell said. “As much as he liked to think that as an inner-city kid he had to be accepted by both sides of life, Red would be the first to say, ‘You don’t have to do that.’ ”

Thomas pushed him as well, motivating with methods that were borderline unethical.

“We had a love-hate relationship at first,” Thomas said. “He hated me and I loved it.”

After Maroney signed his letter of intent to play at Minnesota, Thomas told him he would not receive his scholarship unless he made the honor roll.

“I lied,” Thomas said. “It basically would have been mathematically impossible for him not to qualify. But I told him, ‘When it comes out that you have to go JUCO, your mother will be totally embarrassed and you’ll have to explain why you didn’t do your work.’ ”

Maroney, needless to say, earned A’s and B’s.

Diamond in the rough

Normandy’s program was typical inner-city -- poor facilities, glass-strewn fields, cinder tracks and a roster populated by players who could be kicked out of school at any moment.

“I’ve been recruiting St. Louis for 15 years,” Browning said, “and I’d never been to Normandy.”

Maroney changed that. Playing every down at running back, kick returner and defensive end, he steered the team from also-ran to the brink of the state playoffs.

“I felt like if everybody left Normandy, they would never get better,” Maroney said. “So I stayed.”

Jackson said Maroney’s final two games stand out most. Normandy faced a pair of district contests against bigger, better schools to reach the playoffs. Maroney submitted back-to-back 350-yard, five-touchdown games.

“When the scouts saw those games,” Jackson said, “oh man, they were drooling.”

Minnesota pushed hardest. Maroney answered Browning’s questions straight forwardly and honestly. He looked him in the eye. He was polite.

“Some people had the impression that he was a gangster or a thug and nothing could be further from the truth,” Browning said. “Some schools had an issue with his character. I think that’s partly because of where he came from and partly an excuse because they didn’t get him.”

Toughing it out

Football has represented Maroney’s future for quite some time now. Browning believes he will one day play at 225 pounds while maintaining top-end speed.

“That’s what sets him apart,” Minnesota head coach Glen Mason said. “When he gets a step on you, he’s gone.”

Anyone who thinks Maroney can’t take a pounding should check the three games of 36-plus carries he compiled last season. Included was a gargantuan 46-carry effort against Purdue, then owners of the nation’s No. 1 rushing defense. Maroney shredded them for 217 yards.

“He plays with a little bit of an attitude, which I like,” Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema said. “He really prides himself on being able to run the ball downhill with authority.”

His toughness was evident at age 7, when he fell out of a tree and broke his elbow so badly that setting it required implanting two pins. He broke the elbow at mid-afternoon, took a nap and didn’t let on until dinner.

“I just went to sleep and forgot all about it,” Maroney said with a shrug.

Such toughness continues today.

“He’s a blue-collar guy with a blue-collar attitude,” Browning said. “He takes tough coaching. You can chew his butt out and he’ll respond. He never pouted or complained about anything. He’s a tremendous kid. He has absolutely no baggage. Unlike a lot of guys you’re reading about, he went to class. And he was never taken care of on the sly.”

To do any differently would betray the drive that propelled him out of Normandy and into what many expect will be NFL stardom. It’s time for the kid from the Show Me State to show everyone what he can do.

In a move that bolsters their special teams and adds depth in the defensive backfield, the Patriots agreed to terms with free agent safety Mel Mitchell, according to a league source.
The 27-year-old Mitchell (6 feet 1 inch, 222 pounds) is entering his fifth NFL season and spent his first four years with the New Orleans Saints. Mitchell has played in 44 games (no starts) and is primarily known for his special teams prowess.
In 2004, Mitchell had a career-high 29 special teams tackles, two partially blocked punts, a special teams forced fumble, and a blocked punt recovery in the end zone. In 2002, he had 25 special teams tackles.
Mitchell entered the league in 2002 as a fifth-round draft choice out of Western Kentucky. He was vying for a starting role prior to the 2003 season but suffered a season-ending left knee injury in the exhibition finale against the Dolphins.
With linebacker Matt Chatham signing with the Jets and safety Michael Stone still a free agent, the Patriots are without two core special teams players from last season. Mitchell could fill a similar role, while also providing another option at safety, where the team has Rodney Harrison rehabbing from a serious knee injury.