His Sunday best will suit Mankins just fine
FOXBOROUGH -- When a Patriots media relations representative informed the team's first-round draft choice, Logan Mankins, that the attire for his first meeting with the team owner would be his ''Sunday best," Mankins didn't flinch.
Cowboy hat, dress shirt, jeans, and his best pair of boots.
Well, that's not what the team had in mind. But the last time Mankins was in a suit, he wasn't really in a suit.
The 6-foot-4-inch, 307-pound Catheys Valley, Calif., native posed for a media guide photo at Fresno State in a borrowed-from-the-school coat-and-tie combination, sans the pants.
Yesterday, Mankins appeared before the media in his first trip to New England, sporting a slick dark blue pinstriped suit with a smart checkered tie, courtesy of a trip to Men's Warehouse, and a matching Patriots cap, courtesy his new employer.
''It's his first suit and tie, so our Western cowboy looks like an East Coast investment banker, and we're happy to have him," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said.
The photo opportunity with Kraft and team vice chairman Jonathan Kraft presenting him a jersey with the No. 1 on it (Mankins wore 74 in college), was just part of the reason for Mankins's visit.
Mankins and his fellow rookies in the Patriots 2005 class -- six other draft picks, plus 13 free agent signees -- are here for a rookie orientation weekend that includes a three-day minicamp at Gillette Stadium.
Mankins and college teammate James Sanders, the Patriots' fourth-round pick, flew all night to arrive yesterday morning.
''I'm just looking forward to everything," Mankins said. ''It's a brand new experience for me and I can't wait to experience it."
Most of the queries from the 40 media members focused on Mankins's adjustment to Greater Boston after growing up in a town with a population of fewer than 1,000.
While Boston may be a little faster than he is accustomed to, Mankins enjoyed the countryside on the trip to Foxborough, though he didn't see anything like his family's 10,000-acre spread, where they house some 300 cow-calf pairs.
Mankins, who won cattle-roping championships before becoming an All-Western Athletic Conference offensive tackle at Fresno State, was unsure if his truck -- a 1987 Ford with 218,000 miles -- would make the coast-to-coast trip.
''It's pretty beat up," Mankins said.
He should be able to afford a new one. Patriots tight end Ben Watson, who last year was drafted in the same spot as Mankins (32d overall), was given a $2.7 million signing bonus.
However, it came after a long holdout, something Mankins doesn't expect to be part of his rookie campaign.
''I don't think so," Mankins said. ''That is why I hired an agent to take care of all of that stuff. I've come to play football."
Patriots coach Bill Belichick said this weekend get-together helps the first-year players get up to speed so they'll be ready when they join the veterans in the offseason program May 15.
''We will have them all at dinner and get them oriented a little bit, go out on the field, show them some of the things that they will be doing, how we see them playing, what our terminology is, what position they will be in, some of their plays and so forth," Belichick said. ''When the players come back May 15, we will put everybody fully into an offseason program where they run, they lift weights, we meet with them, they go out on the field and start to learn the plays and practice football. But, these next couple of weeks are in preparation of that. There is some learning preparation.
''No matter how much they have been running around a track, no matter how many sit-ups they have been doing or bench presses, that still doesn't translate to working within our system with the players and coaches, and that has been a frustrating thing, I know, to all the rookie players and to all the teams."
