Rob Ninkovich personifies the Patriot Way - so it's fitting that the team signed him to a contact extension that will keep him with New England through the 2016 season.
The details of the extension were not immediately known, but the mythical unnamed source suggests that the guaranteed money totals $8 Million for the starting left defensive end who has started every game in the past two years and is known for making big plays in clutch situations.
Case in point, last season in week 7 and hosting the New York Jets, the game in overtime with the Patriots leading 29-26, The Jets were driving after a Patriots' field goal when Ninkovich and Jermaine Cunningham went high/low on New York quarterback Mark Sanchez for a sack close to midfield...
...Ninkovich forcing the ball out of Sanchez' hands and onto the Gillette Stadium turf - recovering the fumble to end the game that launched a seven-game winning steak that turned the Patriots from a struggling 3-3 to an eventual 12-4 AFC East division champion.
A Purdue Product and former Iron Worker from just outside of Chicago, the 29 year old Ninkovich started his college career playing at a junior college, having to work with his father hanging off of high rise scaffolding and bridges to make enough money to pay for his own equipment and the old beat-up car that he used to get him to and from away games.
He eventually was offered a scholarship from Purdue University and eventually became a 5th round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints, spending time with the Saints and Dolphins before landing in New England.
With the rich extension, Ninkovich doesn't have to worry about hanging off scaffolding or bridges any longer.
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