Speaking as honestly and openly as any athlete could, Wilfork made it clear that he will have no problem placing a larger leadership role on his already large shoulder pads.
"You have to weed out the bad seeds," he said, perhaps lending some credence to the belief that there was a bit of turmoil in the locker room last year in Foxboro. "If you can't give me what I'm giving you on the field, I don't need you on the field with me. That's how you win. You've got to build trust. Show me that I can count on you."
Wilfork acknowledged that the dynamics of the locker room have shifted dramatically with the losses of Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and Mike Vrabel. Yet the 28-year-old Wilfork said he's ready to be that guy, both for his teammates and head coach Bill Belichick.
"If a guy's not giving me [100 percent], I have no problem telling that guy that I don't need him on the field, and I have no problem going to tell Bill that I don't want him on the field," Wilfork said. "That's how it's going to have to work."
Off the field, Wilfork now has financial comfort he's never before known, but he said aside from building a house in Florida when he's closer to retirement, he won't be going on any spending sprees.
"I think I got everything that I want already," he said. "I'm not a big, flashy guy. I got my truck, but I'm just a normal dude. I don't need to go out and buy a Ferrari or a Bentley or stuff like that."
In describing his offseason, Wilfork said that he was only left in the dark by the Patriots organization for about five minutes.
"When the [franchise] tag officially came to me [on Feb. 22], it probably was like five minutes before we got on the phone and started talking," he explained. "I think in those five minutes it was like, 'OK, are they going to trade me or what's going to happen now?' But once we talked and found out the tag was put on because of trying to reach a long-term deal, I was very positive that a deal was going to get done. By that time, I just knew. There was something in me, and my wife felt the same way, and my agent felt the same way, that a deal was going to get done."
Not surprisingly, the candid Wilfork said he appreciated the openness of Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
"He had no problem with talking with me," Wilfork said of Kraft. "He always returned my phone calls if I didn't reach him, and that's how it went from there. Our personal relationship is great — it's always been great from Day 1 until now."
Wilfork, in describing the negotiation process, made it seem like it was more of a conversation between men.
"At times, I thought maybe I needed to talk to him directly, and I did," he said. "I talk to him if he's passing in the locker room, so what difference does it make? A lot of times it wasn't even about a contract … We handled business like that. He told me that we were going to get a deal done, and we got a deal done. And that's the only thing I asked."
Last summer, Wilfork said time and time again that all he wanted to do was get paid fairly and not have to worry about a contract ever again. On Wednesday, he reiterated that point.
"I'm very excited about getting back to football," he said. "The business is over, now it's all about football. That's what I do best, and let me do it."
That focus on football, if Wilfork's demeanor on Wednesday was any indication, could help bring back that "Patriot way" that just seemed to be lacking last season.
"We all have to rise," he said. "We have to rise our level of play. If something is wrong, we have to address it. We can't let it go on. We have to address it and make it better. People got to realize: We're trying to get somewhere.
"It's nothing personal. If you don't want to win, you don't need to be here. Point blank."
Can't be any more direct than that.
