Moore once said the Patriots made him not want to play football
Kenny Moore II has made it abundantly clear: He did not enjoy his brief tenure in New England.
Moore, who broke into the NFL with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2017, called his time in Foxboro “the longest four months” of his life. In fact, playing under Bill Belichick and Co. made Moore feel like he wasn’t cut out for the league.
The 26-year-old since has proven to be a capable NFL cornerback in Indianapolis, where he’s played the last four-plus seasons. And on Saturday night, Moore will have his first opportunity to stick it to his former team. (He missed the 2018 Colts-Patriots matchup due to a concussion).
Moore won’t enter the Week 15 contest at Lucas Oil Stadium with vengeance on his mind, however. He explained why to Colts.com’s JJ Stankevitz.
“For me to play with a different type of emotion, I feel like it would be different — or, I guess, a slap in the face to all the other teams in this league,” Moore told Stankevitz. “Just because they let me go in 2017, that doesn’t mean that I’ll play more emotional or anything like that.”
Moore also has found value gained from his Patriots stint.
“Just whoever has helped me grow and the Patriots have helped me grow and gave me a lot of knowledge to be the player that I could be right now,” the fifth-year CB said. “That’s knowledge that I can still keep up and share with my teammates now. No bad blood at all. I just appreciate the opportunity of playing for the Patriots when I did.”
Moore might not be sharing his true feelings here, as he probably knows better than to give the Patriots any sort of bulletin-board material. The same can’t be said for Colts teammate Bobby Okereke.