Tedy Bruschi discusses the motivation that he and the Patriots gained after the Spygate scandal in 2007 and how he sees similarities in today's Patriots. (1:56)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Defensive end Jabaal Sheard has been with the New England Patriots for just seven months, and he said it didn’t take him long to get a feel for the culture surrounding the team. It starts with high expectations, and then "going out with a chip on your shoulder every day."

That chip can grow larger depending on the week, such as this one, when a road date against the Indianapolis Colts is next on the schedule.

It’s a chip that former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria, who played for the team from 2002-2005, thinks was born some 15 years ago.

"When I played, it was more about proving people wrong and proving you were right. We always wanted to play with an edge, and I always thought the team that won the Super Bowl in ’01 lit the torch with that disrespect card, beating the Rams. I came the next year and felt like it was there," he said.

Fauria, who now hosts a show on sports radio WEEI in Boston, has heard the word "revenge" used this week to describe the Patriots’ mindset. He agrees that thought process seems prevalent among the team’s fans based on what he’s heard this week on sports radio, but isn’t so sure players see it the same way based on his own experience.

"I don’t think the Patriots are saying, 'Someone needs to pay for this,'" he said. "To me, it’s less about revenge and more about playing with a chip on their shoulder regardless. How many chips are on the shoulder, and how big it is, depends on where they are in a season and what they are up against individually. That’s the way I would look at it."

In that case, the chip couldn’t be much bigger, and the Patriots are often at their best in situations like these.

When Eagles receiver Freddie Mitchell said he couldn’t name members of the Patriots’ patchwork secondary prior to Super Bowl XXXIX, the lack of respect was motivational fuel in an eventual 24-21 win.

Ditto when Steelers safety Anthony Smith guaranteed a victory against the Patriots in the 2007 regular season. Patriots coaches and players later made sure Smith was embarrassed in a 34-13 New England victory.

Almost any game that post-Spygate 2007 season would qualify, starting in Week 2 against the Chargers in a contest that ESPN analyst Tedy Bruschi has called one of the most meaningful of his career.

"That was a week where there was a lot of criticism. All the championships we had won had been questioned," Bruschi said Thursday on "SportsCenter." "As much as the players say they don’t pay attention, they don’t hear, they don’t care about it, that’s just locker-room speak when the media is there. They really still do.

"We felt like we were under attack the entire year. The only way we could fight back was to win football games, and win them convincingly. It did provide a lot of motivation."

The same could be said for quarterback Tom Brady and the 2015 team, post-Deflategate when they rung up big numbers on the scoreboard.

"That’s their mentality and it dates back to 2007 and the whole Spygate thing," former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, now an in-studio analyst for NBC’s "Sunday Night Football," said this week on WEEI. "I know a little something about that locker room; you attack the quarterback and accuse him of doing some cheating and things like that, they’re going to try to put up 50 points and embarrass you. They’re trying to do that every week."

Fauria goes back further than 2007, reflecting on stories like the one the night before Super Bowl XXXIX when Belichick stood in front of the team and told them about how the Eagles’ parade route was all mapped out.

"It was really classic, he broke down the whole route -- 'They’re going here, will stop here, then take a right on this street.' I remember sitting there going, 'Heck no!' recalled Fauria. "No one said that most teams do it, and I wasn’t thinking that at the time. We all took it as an insult that the game hadn’t been played yet and they were making all these plans."

As for this week, Belichick, Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski and others have predictably downplayed any type of "revenge" against the Colts, who sparked Deflategate. Few are buying it, including some Patriots alumni.

That’s because we’ve seen the big-chip-on-their-shoulder approach, with former New England running back Kevin Faulk (1999-2011) having lived it first-hand.

"Coach [Belichick] drives the team motivationally," Faulk said, "and this year, all the motivation was there for them based on what happened in the offseason."