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Mayo On Toucher & Rich: Never Experienced Pressure From Patriots To Play Through Injury

BOSTON (CBS) -- Who will start at quarterback for the Patriots on Thursday night remains a great mystery, but it has been reported that the team would really like Jimmy Garoppolo to be that guy -- bad shoulder an all.

Garoppolo suffered a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder Sunday afternoon against the Miami Dolphins, an injury that quarterbacks have played through in the past, but it's a tall task to ask a QB to play with it just four days later.

Former Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Wednesday morning, and said he never received any pressure from the organization to play through an injury, and doing so had more to do with his competitive nature.

"I never experienced that coming from the top down. As far as being a competitor, if you're a competitor you want to be out there with your guys," said Mayo. "If you're able to play, you really want to play. Especially for the Patriots."

Most of the pressure about playing through an injury came through teammates, and it was mostly in a friendly, joking manner, according to Mayo.

"There is always that joking around. But you know they really want you out there," he said.

As for Garoppolo's status, Mayo suffered an AC separation twice in his career and said playing with the injury makes things very uncomfortable. He can't imagine how it would feel for a quarterback to play through the injury on their throwing shoulder.

"Every day counts with something like an AC separation. I've done it twice and it's very uncomfortable. But I could never throw to begin with, so I couldn't tell you if he would be able to throw with it or without it," said Mayo. "It's not like a shooting pain or anything like that, but it's just super uncomfortable."

Mayo joined the show to promote the seventh annual Mayo Bowl, which will be held on October 3 at Kings in Dedham. For more information and tickets to the event, click here.

Mayo also touched on New England's defensive collapse against in the second half against the Dolphins, and Jamie Collins' talent on the football field:

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