FOXBORO -- The Patriots have dealt with myriad off-the-field issues in the past under coach Bill Belichick. Their approach to each has been relatively similar: Ignore the noise.
"I would say, to be honest, we just ignore it," Patriots safety Duron Harmon said. "I think coach Belichick just does a great job of just brainwashing you to let you know that there's certain things we need to care about and just certain things we need to let be."
It was hard to turn a blind eye to the media presence inside the Patriots locker room on Wednesday, where the number of reporters and photographers appeared to outnumber the number of players present.
On Tuesday, the Boston Herald reported that defensive end Chandler Jones had been to the Foxboro police station on Sunday morning and was later taken to Norwood Hospital. The team announced on Tuesday that he was admitted and released on Sunday.
Though he was at Wednesday's practice -- the third consecutive practice he attended this week -- Jones did not appear in the locker room beforehand. There were, however, plenty of questions floated to his teammates about the incident that occurred over the weekend.
"His locker's right over there," said Patriots offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer when asked if he was concerned for Jones. "Probably have to ask him about that."
When it comes to deflecting, Vollmer explained, it's really not all that difficult.
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"I got a job to do and so does everyone else," he said. "It's a god thing to concentrate on what you can control. Quite frankly, I can't control the questions you ask. Gotta deal with that. There's also nothing I can do. I kinda got my own problems, my own worries, things I gotta work on, and that's what I'm trying to do."