Former Patriots Guard Joe Andruzzi Reflects on Career, Looks Ahead to Helping Families with Upcoming Golf Tournament

The NFL often focuses its attention on highly-touted, big name athletes joining their new teams on draft day. But sometimes, it's the players that fly under the radar entering the NFL that make all the difference.

Former Patriots Guard Joe Andruzzi was one such undrafted rookie free agent. Later signed by New England in 2000, he led the team to three Super Bowls over the course of his career.

After a long, succesful career on the offensive line, Andruzzi retired in 2007. But it's his work off the field that is making the biggest impact in New England.

The Joe Andruzzi Foundation will be hosting its fourth annual golf tournament on June 18, 2012 at Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy, Massachusetts, beginning at 1:30 p.m. All proceeds from the tournament will support the foundation's mission to provide financial assistance to cancer patients and their families, and fund pediatric brain cancer research through Children's Hospital Boston. Andruzzi, who battled the disease himself, started the foundation in 2008.

The tournament will be guest-hosted for the first time by current Patriots Rob Gronkowski and Rob Ninkovich. In addition, each foursome that golfs at the tournament will include a celebrity golfer. The tournament will also feature a helicopter ball drop, where people can purchase a ball (out of a total of 750 balls) to be dropped from a helictoper onto the 18th green, with the closest ball to the pin winning Patriots jerseys autographed by Gronkowski and Ninkovich.

People are encouraged to buy tickets to attend or play in the tournament.

Andruzzi participated in a live twitter chat on Wednesday to reflect on his days in the NFL with the Patriots, and look forward to the June 18 golf tournament. Fans followed the conversation using the hashtag #Nesnlive.

Check out the conversation below.

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Photo via Facebook/ JoeAndruzziFoundation