Doctors told Adrian Clayborn not to play football.

His mother decided it was safer than letting him hang out on the streets.

The free agent defensive end Jamie Collins Jersey , who signed with the defending AFC champion New England Patriots last week, developed a condition called Erb’s palsy when the nerves in his neck were stretched during childbirth. The damage affects the right side of his body – his neck, his bicep and his trapezius muscle – and forces him to work out differently, but doesn’t change his play, he said.

”I’ve learned to compensate when I have to,” Clayborn said in a conference call on Wednesday. ”And I do what I’ve got to do to make the plays.”

Clayborn, 29 Ryan Kalil Jersey , wrote on The Players’ Tribune that because of the condition doctors told his mother not to let him play football. But she relented after his older brother was shot and killed.

He also spent most of two seasons on injured reserve, with a popped bicep in the NFC championship game after the 2016 season that had him contemplating retirement.

Instead, he pushed forward.

”Life happens,” Clayborn told reporters. ”I mean, through the Erb’s Palsy or losing my dad and my brother – it just made me the person I am today. Just got to take the blows when they come and throw a couple back at times. So, just learn how to fight and scrap and learn how to keep going.”

A seven-year veteran who played the past three seasons with Atlanta, Clayborn is coming off a career-high 9 sacks in 2017. Although he played mostly on third down and other pass-rushing situations with the Falcons George Iloka Jersey , he said he could take on a bigger role if the Patriots ask him to.

”That’s what people have pigeonholed me in as a third-down player, but I know I can play first, second, third down if need be,” he said. ”That was my role in Atlanta because that’s what they asked me to do, but I mean, I can play all three downs if you ask me.”

Although he was on the 2016 Falcons team [url=]Tyler Boyd Jersey[/url] , he was injured early in the conference title game and missed the Super Bowl, when New England rallied from a 25-point, second-half deficit.

”It was tough to watch, being hurt,” Clayborn said. ”I don’t know if I could have made an impact. I would hope so. I mean, that’s my job to do every game, so I would hope I would have been able to make an impact in that game and possibly a different outcome.”

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Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was released by the Giants last weekend Kyle Long Jersey , giving him a head start on this year’s free agent class when it came to finding a new job but Rodgers-Cromartie hasn’t signed with a new team.

It will apparently be some time before that changes. Rodgers-Cromartie took a visit to Washington this week that didn’t result in a contract and he is planning to wait for a bit before trying to find a new home.

Rodgers-Cromartie told Josina Anderson of ESPN that he isn’t in a rush to sign anywhere and plans to revisit his options “in April sometime.” That will keep him out of the first wave of free agency, but could increase desire for him from teams that don’t land their desired targets during the current period.

Depending on when in April Rodgers-Cromartie is thinking about, teams that strike out in the draft could also be in the mix for the veteran’s services.

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