No hype here

Harrison works to keep distractions to a minimum

NFL. Rodney Harrison doesn’t want to hear anything about the Patriots going 16-0, and woe to the friend or relative who brings it up.

“I hang up on them,” the veteran safety said yesterday. “My family knows not to say anything about an undefeated season or anything like that, because I’ll hang up on you. It’s pretty easy for me, because when I go home, my wife is telling me to clean up the kitchen or take the garbage out. I don’t have to really deal with it.”

Not everyone has the ability — or familial support — to keep distractions at bay like Harrison. The media circus has come to town, ready to cover the Patriots and their push for perfection. A phalanx of national and international reporters from as far away as Japan was in Foxborough for Sunday’s Patriots-Dolphins game. And, even during yesterday’s off-day, media from The New York Times, the NFL Network, ESPN and the Canadian sports network, TSN — in addition to the usual horde from around New England — were all scouting out the New England locker room for that perfect, camera-ready sound byte.

After all, this is big news: If the Patriots beat the Giants on Saturday night at the Meadowlands, they would be the first team to finish the regular season with a 16-0 record. New England would be able to claim a rightful spot at the table with teams like the 1972 Dolphins and the 1985 Bears as one of the finest regular-season performances in the long history of the NFL. The idea of seeing history has pro football fans and media in a frenzy.

But while Harrison was his usual polite self with reporters yesterday, he’s content to downplay it all, at least for now. Unlike some of his teammates, he’s been seen his share of media hoopla — he was with the 2003 and 2004 Patriots — and nothing much fazes him anymore. Whether it’s during training camp or right after a Super Bowl, his straightforward demeanor rarely changes. So it was no surprise he was predictably blunt with a questioner who asked what 16-0 means to him.

“We won 16 games,” he said flatly. “In a row.”

Harrison did acknowledge that they’ll be a proper time to reflect on what the Patriots have been able to accomplish — and could still do. But that time and place is still down the road.

“Maybe once I’m done playing, I can sit back on that and reflect on that — if we win, you have a chance to reflect on that,” he said. “But right now is not the time.”

Right now, Harrison is all about the Giants. While New York is still being coy about who will and who won’t play (it has the No. 5 playoff seed locked up in the NFC, and could rest several starters who have been beset by nagging injuries), Harrison agrees with Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick, who says the Giants are “as physical as any team that we’ve faced all year on both sides of the ball, particularly in the front.”

“No question. It’s probably one of the best offensive lines we’ve faced,” Harrison said. “They have receivers that want to block you in the running game as well as three backs that can get downhill and create some confusion down there. They’re so big and so physical.”