Wilfork received good deal of power

Both men got their teams to the divisional round of the playoffs, but with monstrous expectations staring them down, you could easily argue that Turner and Phillips should have been pushed to the plank after losing.

Jones and Spanos knew better than to do that.

The reason isn’t hard to figure. It would be near-impossible for coaches to control their teams through adversity with every player knowing the guy in charge could well be getting whacked.

Ask Jim Zorn about that predicament. Or, for that matter, Vince Wilfork.

The Patriots made the big nose tackle a captain in 2009, but without a new contract, that “C’’ didn’t carry all the juice it should have. Wilfork didn’t know what the future held for him and neither did his teammates. So he led the way he always had, by example, and couldn’t carry a torch that was first fumbled (following the departures of Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour, and Mike Vrabel), then started a brushfire that left the season in ashes.

Things have since changed. That’s what a five-year, $40 million deal will do for your stature within an organization.

Wilfork didn’t just get rich when the deal was struck. He got power, too. And if there was one thing abundantly clear in yesterday’s 28-minute conference call with the media, it’s that he plans to use it.

“Some people are vocal leaders,’’ Wilfork said. “I led by example. I’ve said things when I had to say it, but now all of us have to rise. We have to raise our level of play. If something is wrong, we have to address it. We can’t let it go on. We have to address it and get it better and people have to realize that we’re trying to get somewhere.

“It’s nothing personal. If you don’t want to win, you don’t have to be here, point blank. So if you want to win, this is how we’re going to have to do it.

“You’ve got to be the believer and you’ve got to go forward, and you might have to do a little something extra. That’s fine. By me doing something extra or by us doing something extra, [if that] gets us to the point we need to be, I’ll do it 100 out of 100 times, point blank.’’

That “something extra’’ is what so many Patriots of the past would do “100 out of 100 times,’’ as well.