Dennard's coach defends player's character

ESPNBoston.com

"That isn't who he is, that's never been who he is, and that's not going to be who he is in the future," Pelini says in the piece. "And I put my reputation, and I put everything I stand for as a football coach behind that young man.

"He is a tremendous young man, and one who you want not only representing you as a football player, but the type of kid you want in your community, the type of kid you want representing your organization.

"For four years, I didn't have a problem with that young man in any way. He did things exactly how we asked him to do them here, and the way we handle our kids, we don't make it easy on the kids in our program. We hold them to high standards every single day."

In case you haven't heard, Alfonzo Dennard apparently punched a policeman in the face the week of the draft. The incident caused the corner, who was seen as a top round prospect, to fall all the way to the Patriots in the seventh round.

Dennard's college coach, Bo Pellini, coming out to defend him in the media coupled with some of the comments from Belichick defending the pick, make you think there is more to Dennard's story than what appears on the surface.

From a pure football standpoint, Dennard's talent could really help this Patriots secondary. The Pats' pass defense ranked at the bottom of the league last year and was largely their Achilles heel.