Vince Wilfork puts business to the side

FOXBOROUGH -- After this morning's minicamp practice, nose tackle Vince Wilfork answered 19 different questions from reporters. Twelve of them were related to his contract status.

Wilfork is naturally disappointed that he is entering the sixth year of the six-year rookie contract he signed in 2004. He would have preferred a lucrative long-term extension.

Repeating multiple times that he can only control what he can control, Wilfork said this morning that he is not ready to shut down future contract talks with the team. At the same time, it's not in the forefront of his mind.

"That will take care of itself when it’s time to, but right now, I’m trying to put that to the side and trying to do what I’m here to do – that’s play football," Wilfork said after the team's fifth official practice of camp. "I’m really not paying attention to it, nothing else but playing football right now.”

Wilfork acknowledged that it can be challenging to draw a line between the business aspect of the game, and playing the game on the field.

"It's tough, but being a professional you have to," he said. "The last thing I want is being on the field and being pissed off at everybody, and now my teammates can’t trust me to do what I have to do. I would not put my teammates in that predicament. They know what they can get out of me. They know what they will get out of me. ...

"Right now, that’s what I pay my agent to do, to handle this stuff because I don’t want to be bothered with this. I have a job to do and the last thing I want to do is to have all this stuff going on. My wife [Bianca] is pregnant and she’s due August 5th. I have a lot of headaches in my household and adding one more to it, I can’t add one more to it. I’ll let my agent handle that situation and go forth from there. Me personally, I want to play football. I’m going to play football and whatever happens, happens.”