Kenny Moore spent four months with the New England Patriots as an undrafted rookie in 2017. To say he does not have fond memories of that summer would be an understatement.
Moore, who went on to become a standout cornerback for the Indianapolis Colts after being cut by the Patriots, recently told Tyler Dunne of Go Long he was miserable during his brief time in New England.
“The longest four months of my life,” Moore said in an interview published Friday. “I thought I was done with football. My mental capacity and my mental space? I was just maxed out.”
The intense, no-nonsense “Patriot Way” culture was not a fit for Moore, who told Dunne he frequently clashed with then-Patriots cornerbacks coach Josh Boyer. He described the atmosphere in Foxboro as “over the top.”
“That was one of the low spots of my life,” Moore told Dunne, “because that’s really when I felt like, ‘I’m probably not built for the league.’ And having that feeling of, ‘You’re not good enough,’ that’s a bad feeling. You feel like you don’t belong. I lost all of my joy and passion. I didn’t even want to play football. I didn’t want to go to work anymore. I was depressed. I was trying to fight my way out of it.”
He added: “It just felt robotic. You don’t want to do anything else but go home and go to sleep because tomorrow is about to be crazy. I really felt like I was in the military. Like, damn.”
From Dunne:
“More than anything, football frankly just was not fun anymore. The only thing that kept Moore sane were teammates like (Malcolm) Butler, Eric Rowe, Elandon Roberts and the rookies going through the same initiation. He points out that there’s a reason Matthew Stafford was willing to play for any team but the Patriots.”
Dunne relayed that the Patriots’ success in finding undrafted cornerbacks like Butler was what inspired Moore to sign with them in the first place. That list also includes current Patriots corners J.C. Jackson, Jonathan Jones and Myles Bryant.
The Patriots released Moore — who, despite his displeasure, impressed in training camp — during final roster cuts in September 2017 and traded for veteran cornerback Johnson Bademosi the same day. Moore quickly latched on with the Colts and has been a full-time starter since 2018, grading out as one of Pro Football Focus’s top 20 corners in 2019 (15th) and 2020 (16th).
You can read Dunne’s full feature on Moore here.
