By Kevin McNamara
Journal Sports Writer

MINNEAPOLIS — They are the men that protect Tom Brady, the engine that powers the New England Patriots offense.

They are also intelligent, low-key, hard-working and even like to have a little fun when their veteran coach isn’t watching.

“It’s probably pretty boring when I’m around,” says 69-year old Dante Scarnecchia, “but they probably have a lot of fun together when I leave the room.”

Scarnecchia has coached the Pats’ offensive line for 17 of the last 19 seasons. Over the years he’s tutored All-Pros, top draft choices and plenty of championship teams. But his current crop of linemen typifies what Bill Belichick looks for in a true Patriot.

“They’re all good guys, they all have great personalities and are all really intelligent,” Scarnecchia said. “Collectively they’re tough guys. Those are traits that we covet.”

Don’t go looking for stars in this group.

While guard Shaq Mason enjoyed a Pro Bowl-level season, no Patriot lineman earned that honor. Only one lineman, tackle Nate Solder, came to Foxboro as a first-round pick. Center David Andrews wasn’t even drafted, but is now in his third season as a starter and a team captain. Offensive linemen are one of football's faceless positional groups and these guys typify that reputation.

“We have an excellent time together and are successful. That’s what really counts,” said Solder. “This group has great camaraderie and everyone works incredibly hard.”

Like all positions, the offensive linemen spend lots of time together with their coach in meeting rooms. They become close, meet one another’s families and even choose to hunt and fish together in the off-season.

Mason and tackle Cam Fleming are quiet. Andrews and Joe Thuney are a bit more expressive, while Solder is known for being very religious.

The group has experienced the thrill of another Super Bowl run while also dealing with the most serious of real-world problems. Solder’s 2-year old son, Hudson, is battling a rare form of kidney cancer. Solder, his wife and young daughter spend their days off driving to Boston for treatments and doctor’s visits.

“I have excellent teammates,” Solder said. “Those guys have wrapped their arms around me and helped me through this stuff. I am so thankful to them and the coaches and everybody who has helped me.”

Preparing for football games requires long hours of meetings, practices and film sessions. Sprinkling in a little fun is important, too, and the loosest of the crew is clearly Ted Karras, a 24-year-old with a quick wit. “Ted’s a goof-ball. You’ve got to have a Ted in the group,” Andrews said with a laugh.

Karras and Shaq Mason were destined to be athletes. Mason’s mother named him Shaquille Olajuwon Mason after her two favorite NBA players — Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon. Karras is the fifth member of his family to play in the NFL. His father, Ted Sr., played for the Redskins in 1987. His great-uncle, Alex, was a star in the 1960s with the Detroit Lions who went on to an acting career that included roles on hit TV shows "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Odd Couple" and "M*A*S*H".

“My whole family is football players and football coaches,” Karras said. “Every male in my family played in college and now I’m in the NFL like they were. I’m very grateful to join that fraternity.”

These Patriots are no big, dumb lugs.

Fleming graduated from Stanford. Thuney earned his accounting degree from North Carolina State in three years and also minored in Spanish. Among the crush of Super Bowl media is a sizable contingent from foreign countries, especially Mexico. They have found a willing interviewee in Thuney who says his Spanish “is pretty basic but more than passable.”

Karras already has two degrees from the University of Illinois and he’s not ready to stop. He and Thuney are in an online MBA program at Indiana University offered to current and former NFL players. The NFL’s Players Association even provides a stipend to defray the cost of the program. “It just seems to be that everyone keeps wanting to pay for my school so I’m not going to turn it down,” Karras told The Boston Globe.

Solder, 29, is the only lineman older than 25 years old. When the Patriots won their first Super Bowl in New Orleans in 2002, the other four starters weren’t even 10 years old. Andrews was a 9-year-old in Johns Creek, Georgia, and says he remembers a young Tom Brady and the Pats upsetting St. Louis and the self-proclaimed "Greatest Show on Turf".

“It’s kind of crazy seeing how young I was when [Brady] started doing this and now getting an opportunity to work with a guy like that,” Andrews said. “I remember the Patriots and the Rams. I think I had a babysitter that first Super Bowl. My parents went out to watch the game but all I remember is I made the sitter let me stay up for the game.”