Results of Wes Welker Foundation mean more than one dropped ball

“It's humbling to see,” Welker said, “and it's good to see.”

He paused.

“It makes the Super Bowl drop a lot easier, I'll tell you that.”

Ah, yes, the Super Bowl.

Less than a month after the biggest game of his career — and the cruelest disappointment of his life — the New England Patriots wide receiver spent Tuesday morning back in his hometown with members of his foundation board. They toured several of the projects funded by their grant program, including glittering weight rooms at the Boys and Girls Club and at Douglass High School. They saw what their efforts have done to help level the playing field for at-risk kids in Oklahoma City through athletics, the mission of the Wes Welker Foundation.

They also saw the work that remains.

Nowhere was that more evident than Jefferson, the largest middle school in the Oklahoma City Public Schools. It's a place needing more renovation than MAPS for Kids will provide.

“You kind of don't know where to start,” Welker said. “But we've got to start somewhere.”

Welker is in the middle of some of the most high-profile contract negotiations of the NFL's offseason. He could become a free agent if the Patriots don't sign him, and while there's been talk that the team will place the franchise tag on him, other teams have made it known that they want him badly.

Lead the NFL in receptions three out of the past five seasons, and you're bound to be a hot commodity.

Of course, all of this good will follows a heart-wrenching final chapter to this past season. The sure-handed Welker dropped a fourth-quarter pass in the Super Bowl. The Patriots lost to the Giants. The critics came out of the woodwork.

The past few weeks, Welker has tried to get away from all of it. He turned off the cellphone for a week. He stayed off the Internet.

But none of it was any more therapeutic than Tuesday's tour.

“I think it really just puts things in perspective,” Welker said. “Through a season, you go through highs, you go through lows, you go through all this stuff. But that's life.