On Monday night, Ernie Adams officially announced his retirement from the Patriots following 21 years as football research director.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, David Andrews was asked about an Adams memory and it was actually pretty similar to many Patriots fans'.
“Ernie’s kind of like a mysterious, mythical creature in the building when you come in as a rookie,” he said. “My rookie year was just after they did the big documentary on the 2014 season, and that was the first thing I ever remember about Ernie Adams — that documentary and him in his office talking about the Malcolm Butler play. It was just like, ‘What does this guy really do?’ And he kind of became an Internet sensation and the Pink Stripe thing or whatever.”
The Patriots center also had a specific memory from one of his first training camp sessions.
“I remember I fumbled a snap in spring or training camp, something early,” Andrews said. “We were running a guard pull play. Bill (Belichick) obviously didn’t like that very much, and I ended up running a lap. But then Ernie after practice at some point talked to me and just talked about how that’s one of the harder snaps because the quarterback’s pulling away at the opposite direction for the handoff, you’re going flat down the line to try to cut somebody off in a penetrating position. So he just talked to me about that, and ever since then, I kind of was like, ‘Wow. All right.’
“I always made an effort to talk to Ernie when he was in the building, when I passed him in the building, about rules. Whatever it may be, he’s like an encyclopedia. Ernie will definitely be missed around the building, that’s for sure.”
Andrews re-signed with the team this offseason that will keep him in New England for the next four years.
