FOXBORO — He's taken a beating over the last seven months despite not having played a down of football in that time, but still Laurence Maroney is smiling.

On the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium last week, as quarterback Tom Brady was engulfed by a sea of reporters, Maroney chatted with a smaller group, though his answers seemed a bit cautious.

When the small group had dwindled to one, he appeared to relax, and a wide grin lit up his face when he was asked about his new daughter.

"Kinnedi, Feb. 13, 6:08 p.m.," the proud dad quickly rattles off the basic stats of her birth. "It was definitely a great experience, seeing your creation, something you can call your own."

But while he is clearly loving fatherhood, not everything has been so enjoyable for Maroney.

The Patriots running back unknowingly sparked a bit of a firestorm during the team's first week of training in California when he said he had "issues."

Maroney clearly had a problem with his shoulder, and eyebrows were raised when he ducked out of bounds against the 49ers rather than meet linebacker Patrick Willis head-on for a first down, but claiming he was dealing with issues opened the door to speculation as to what more was going on with the former first-round draft pick.

Reporters and fans alike began to wonder what was troubling Maroney, and if there were off-field concerns for the St. Louis native in addition to his injury. Discussion boards filled threads debating if he's a bust or made of glass; he eventually was placed on injured reserve after playing in just three games.

But as questions swirled, Maroney wasn't able to provide many answers since New England doesn't let players discuss injuries. In a November appearance for Reebok, Maroney wouldn't let on which shoulder was hurt, whether he'd undergone surgery, or what exactly he meant when he made the "issues" comment.

All he allowed was that he was facing a long rehab for the first time in his football life, his relationship with coach Bill Belichick was fine, and he was injured against the Jets in Week Two.

Maroney finally cracked a couple of weeks ago, however. At Kevin Faulk's charity softball game, he revealed that he had a broken bone in his shoulder and the frustration came out.

"I had a broken bone and I was trying to play with it," he said, via the Boston Globe. "It's kind of hard to sit here and play and not tell people what is going on. Everybody is going to think one way because they don't really know what's going on. I dare anybody in this crowd to play football with a broken bone in your shoulder and you tell me how long you're going to last out there."

Perhaps relieved that he had spoken his mind at last, Maroney claimed on Thursday that the hits he was taking didn't affect him.

"It didn't really get to me; it don't bother me," he said. "Their job [media members] is to write a story, my job is to play football."

Maroney is healthy and feeling good, and knows that having several capable running backs to share the load — Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and new Patriot Fred Taylor — can only help him in terms of wear and tear on his body.

And besides, "I just want to win," he said.

At the end of the 2007 season, Maroney had a fantastic streak of games, topping 100 yards in four of New England's final six games. With last year essentially lost, the question now is whether that Maroney will be the one on the field this season.

"It depends on who asks; everyone can interpret it a different way," he said. "That's what I want to do, that's what I can be. You can't say it's a fluke, it didn't happen in one game, it was multiple games."

smanza@projo.com