Others sat lifeless in their chairs as the stared straight into the back of their lockers, which are only a couple of feet deep, though their sightlines burned holes that must have seemed like they lasted an eternity.
For the first time since late July, when the Patriots reported en masse for training camp, they were completely empty, stripped of their thoughts and buried in their emotions. The rival Jets ended their season, 28-21, and there was so little that they could say about it.
"It is tough," Patriots tight end Alge Crumpler said. "Your emotions are going to be at one extreme. You're either going to be really happy or really sad, and I hate that we all have to feel this way."
These were not the 2010 Patriots who finished with an NFL-best 14-2 record and won nine games by double digits. And it certainly was not the group that dismantled all four of the postseason's remaining teams — New York, Pittsburgh, Green Bay and Chicago — by a 151-63 margin in a six-week span.
Instead, they were the Patriots who threw an interception for the first time in three months, fumbled three times and failed to force a turnover for the third time all season.
Credit the Jets for being more physical, more aggressive and flat-out better. They visited New England a month and a half after getting slapped around by six touchdowns, and they put together a masterful performance to earn a trip to their second consecutive AFC Championship.
The Patriots didn't make any excuses and owned up to their mistakes while begrudgingly crediting the Jets for pulling off a shocking victory.
And what wrenched their gut the most, after the countless improvements they made throughout the season, the Patriots couldn't validate them with a single step forward in the playoffs.
"It's very disappointing," linebacker Jerod Mayo said. "The regular season means nothing now."
The Patriots will clear out their lockers Monday and head into a dark offseason. There will be far less questions about this team than last year's version, and there is a lot of promise and potential due to the bright cast of young players who have filled up the roster.
From there, though, they've got to prove they want to take the necessary steps toward improvement. They have to show they'll have the same dedication in the offseason to build another winner in the regular season, and that can put them in position for another playoff run.
"It's going to take a lot of work to get back to the position that we're at now, but we're willing to do it," Mayo said. "Everything happens for a reason."
Of course, that's a year-long process, and the culmination of anything is so far away. The blank stares in the Patriots' eyes Sunday couldn't realize that point in their journey, if they had a concrete vision of anything specific at all.
"I think we'll see where guys really stand once we start the offseason program," wide receiver Deion Branch said. "We'll see where the guys come in. We'll see who's really embarrassed by [Sunday's] loss, and want to get better and want to improve starting in the offseason program, going into minicamp and training camp."
