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TUCSON, Ariz. — Between Monday night’s game against the Cardinals and this Sunday’s road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders, the New England Patriots spent four days in Tucson, the location of the University of Arizona.
Roughly two hours southeast of Glendale, Ariz., where State Farm Stadium rises from the desert like a gargantuan toaster oven, Tucson is a picturesque, mountainside community that doubles as a bustling college town. There was plenty for Patriots players to do when they weren’t practicing at Arizona Stadium or utilizing the rest of the athletic department’s facilities.
However, it sounds like most of the downtime was spent hanging out at a nearby resort.
“We’re staying in a nice hotel,” a smiling Matthew Judon said after Thursday’s practice.
But what did players do while relaxing at the hotel?
“We hang out. We enjoy each other,” he said. “We get to talk. We talk about a lot of stuff, man. It’s a lot of laughter.”
Judon then revealed that much of the conversation between players involved heated debates on a variety of topics. Judon didn’t go into great detail, but he did offer a humorous anecdote on “alliances” formed by players on both sides of the aisles — with safeties Devin McCourty and Adrian Phillips leading the charge.
“Dev and AP, they’re creating an alliance right now,” Judon said. “They’re always backing each other up. Anything. Anything. You could be like, ‘Hot Cheetos is hot.’ And they’d be like, ‘No it’s not!’ Anything. Dev is always the first one and then AP, ‘Yup! Yup!’ “
Judon’s solution? Form an alliance of his own with linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley and offensive tackle Trent Brown.
“Me and Bent and Trent, we’ve gotta kinda get them off that way,” Judon said. “But they’re sticking thick and thin right now.”
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When pressed again to reveal some of the more intensely debated topics, Judon finally provided one.
“I think on this trip it’s been, ‘Can I play in the NBA or not?’ ” Judon said. “AP and Dev, hard nos. Hard nos.”
OK, not exactly “Is Elon Musk ruining Twitter?” — but it’s something.
While spending a week in Tucson might’ve been an unorthodox setup, the reality is the Patriots probably were wise to stay out West. Traveling to Phoenix, back to New England, out to Las Vegas and back to New England would’ve been a big ask for a team that needs to be on top of its game down the stretch.
Plus, it sounds like the trip provided an opportunity for some quality bonding time, if you can call it that.
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