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January 30, 2004
GRIZZLED VET: Poole has little to say about former team
By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER
HOUSTON
Tyrone Poole never was much of a talker when he played for the Carolina Panthers.
And he isn't much of a talker now - especially when the subject of playing for the Panthers comes up.
"My Carolina days are behind me," he said.
Poole is a starting cornerback for the New England Patriots and will face the team that drafted him in Super Bowl XXXVIII on Sunday at Reliant Stadium.
Two days after the game, Poole will celebrate his 32nd birthday. The outcome of the game likely will determine the size and tone of his birthday party.
For those who remember Poole as a wide-eyed rookie out of tiny Fort Valley (Ga.) State in the Panthers' inaugural season in 1995, it's hard to envision him as a grizzled NFL veteran. But this is his eighth NFL season, although that's counting one he spent away from the game and on the reserve/left squad list of the Denver Broncos.
Poole said then that he was quitting pro football because he was tired of it. He thus became the second first-round selection of the Panthers' 1995 draft class to quit a team - joining Kerry Collins, a former Panthers quarterback who walked into Coach Dom Capers' office early in the 1998 season and said his heart was no longer in the job.
By then Poole, the second draft pick in Carolina team history, was already gone. He spent three seasons with the Panthers before signing as a free agent with the Indianapolis Colts, where he spent the next three seasons before moving on to Denver.
It has been speculated that Poole quit the Broncos because they drafted two cornerbacks and he was projected to fill a reserve role - something he didn't embrace because he had always been a starter. After taking a year off, Poole returned to the Broncos in 2002 and appeared in all 16 games, but started only four.
He signed with the Patriots as a free agent before this season, and quickly won a starting job back. Before playing as a reserve in Denver, Poole had started 85 of the 92 career games in which he had appeared. He was one of only four New England players to start all 16 regular-season games this season, and has started each of the Patriots' two playoff games.
Dom Capers, Poole's former head coach at Carolina, said that he has never seen Poole play better.
"Tyrone Poole was out on the street. They bring him in and he's playing the best that he's played. He's always had the ability, but I think now he's more focused," Capers said. "I think it's experience, maybe being away from it. But I think he's playing well."
But Poole has never been into having his success measured by anyone else.
"I've always known that I could play," Poole said. "I'm so spiritual. My spirituality teaches me that I'm the head, not the tail. No matter what it is, as long as I am going out and doing what I consider is successful concerning my spirituality, then it doesn't matter what other people think."
When Poole arrived in Carolina in 1995, he liked his teammates to call him "T.P." But those initials didn't stand for Tyrone Poole in his mind; rather, he said it stood for "Total Package." Other teammates called him "Little Muscle" because, though only 5-9 and 188 pounds, he could bench press more than 350 pounds and was extremely muscular.
Strong safety Mike Minter, who joined the Panthers in 1997 in Poole's last season, said Carolina rookie Ricky Manning Jr. reminds him of how Poole was then. Manning can bench press 375 pounds and often takes ribbing from teammates for flexing his muscles and posing in front of mirrors.
Once the game begins, none of that matters, according to Minter. All that matters is whether or not someone can make the right plays.
"Tyrone Poole was like that. He was about the same size as Ricky, too. He was cut and he was strong, too. When I got here, he was one of the cornerbacks I aspired to," Minter said.
"How much a guy lifts and all that, it doesn't mean that much to me. All I care about is getting in there and getting my work done and then making plays on the field. I don't care how much weight you lift. You could be the weakest dude, but if you get on the field and make plays, I like it."
Poole never was the weakest dude, and won't be in this Super Bowl. But at his size, the taller Muhsin Muhammad, one of his former Carolina teammates who is a 6-2, 218-pound wide receiver, might present a challenge for him to defend.
Poole and Muhammad played together for the Panthers in the NFC championship game at Green Bay following the 1996 regular season.
"He's a quality player," Poole said. "But those days are in the past. That's just like asking me if I can remember things from my youthful years. Right now, I'm concentrating on being a Patriot and that is what is in my mind."
• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com