No time for interviews then, but somehow a window of three hours was found in late August before the Patriots' last preseason game, against the New York Giants in East Rutherford, N.J. "Hi, I'm Ernie ...

PHOENIX -- You don't notice Ernie Adams at first, but he's always there in his own peculiar way. Walking the halls in the Patriots' complex, lost in his own thoughts, he will often ignore co-workers.