Patriots Blog: Long Sleeves Or Short? That Is The Question
FOXBORO (CBS) -- Cold weather games in the NFL always brings about a huge question for players: Should you wear cold weather gear or not?
Real quick, I personally dislike being cold, so I would wear every piece of thermal that is offered and hopefully I would be able to get out there and play. But for some, they do not feel the same way.
Vince Wilfork is one of them.
"I do what I've been doing for 11 years – go out there like I'm playing in 80 degrees," Wilfork said on Wednesday. "I'm a big believer in, 'I'm not playing the weather,' so I'm not going to switch my routine up just because of what's going on outside. Deal with it. I think at that point in the game, I don't care if it's minus-two or 98, you have to be able to play that football game, and the more you can just focus on your opponent and everything else, just block it out, the better you'll be, the more successful you'll be. I'm not going to change much going into this game."
Wilfork did admit that players do get some help in staying warm.
"I'll tell you what -- when it gets close to the end of the game, I'm ready to get inside. I won't lie about that," he said. "But during the course of the game, with the heated benches, going on and off the field and moving around, as a player you really don't feel that coldness. You'll be so focused, you'll be so pumped up and by the time you get a chance to feel it, you're on the sidelines sitting on heated benches. For me, it's never a problem, and I'm not trying to make it a problem."
Dont'a Hightower hasn't had as many years to adjust to the New England cold as Wilfork. Hightower said his outfit choice is a game-time decision.
"I just kind of wait to feel it out on game day," Hightower said. "I usually wear sleeves. I kind of roll them up, just to see how I feel in warmups and then after that, if I need to go thicker, then I'll go thicker. But most of the time, I just wear half-sleeves. That will probably be what I do."
With regard to looking tough and going with short sleeves in frigid weather, Hightower said he has nothing to prove.
"I'm not that guy. I've learned my lesson in the past and I'm definitely not trying to be a tough guy when it comes to that," Hightower said. "Whatever way I play more comfortable, which would be the sleeves. So I'm going to rock the sleeves."
Brandon LaFell mentioned earlier in the year that he would rather be cold in a game than a practice. He says at the game, there are heated benches and more people and everybody is running around. While at practice, it's just the players standing around huddled up after drills.
Julian Edelman says he dresses warm but pays attention to the ball.
"The ball is harder, but it's harder for both teams. There's like a study where your grip strength goes down like 30 percent when it's a certain amount of degrees out – I don't know," Edelman said. "We are practicing out there and we're going to get used to it."
The temperature at kickoff for Saturday's game against the Ravens is expected to be in the teens.
Follow Levan Reid on Twitter @LevanReid.
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