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FOXBORO - It's all a matter of perspective.

Lewis Sanders has been on the injured reserve list four times in his football career, the first time forcing him to miss the entire 2001 season with the Cleveland Browns because of a leg injury.

To that point, the day he was shelved for the season - Aug. 27, 2001 - might have seemed like the worst day of his life.

Fifteen days later, however, Sanders' perspective changed.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines flight 11, a Boeing 767 jet out of Boston, was commandeered by terrorists and flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, carving a gaping hole into the side of the building from the 92nd to the 98th floors and setting thousands of tons of jet fuel ablaze. Sanders' father, Lewis Sr., worked for the company that administered the fire alarm system in the Twin Towers, and was in his office near the 80th floor when the aircraft hit.

Slightly more than an hour and a half after Flight 11 hit the north tower, it came crashing to the ground, its structural steel catastrophically weakened by the intense heat of the blaze. The south tower was similarly destroyed by another hijacked aircraft.

The shock of the attack was bad enough, Sanders said - and then came the waiting.

"It was pretty tough because you couldn't get a hold of anybody back then," the Patriots' veteran defensive back said Monday after the morning workout at the Gillette Stadium practice complex. "That was probably the hardest thing, not knowing for four or five hours of waiting and a lot of praying."

Fortunately, Sanders' father made it out of the building alive. His family members in their native Staten Island, N.Y., were first to learn that he had survived, but it took a little more time before Lewis could be tracked down and told the good news.

"Eventually they got a hold of my mother, and then they called me about five or six hours later," he said.

Given the emotions that he experienced on that fateful day, Sanders said he learned to look at the bigger picture when he might experience misfortune on the football field. Injuries in 2003, 2006 and 2007 have returned him to the injured-reserve list for shorter periods of time, but he's healthy now and is battling to become a member of the Patriots' rebuilt secondary.

"It's been bad luck," he said. "I've missed a while on IR, but it wasn't really too serious. Last year I went on IR, but I only missed the last three games. So I'm ready to go. I'm definitely healthy. I feel like I'm in the swing of things."

Sanders had the added aggravation last season of being present in Atlanta for the controversy surrounding quarterback Michael Vick and his involvement with illegal dog-fighting - the sort of distraction that's dreaded by all NFL players.

"It was pretty tough," he said, "but you know, it's the NFL. No matter what's going on, you've still got to play." Now in his ninth NFL season, Sanders has put together four fairly consistent seasons in a row with the Browns, Texans and Falcons. Starting 21 of a possible 51 games over that time, he has posted 116 of his 172 career tackles and three of his five career interceptions. His best season statistically was 2006 in Houston, when he had a career-high 37 tackles after just nine games before being put on injured reserve with an arm injury.

After one disastrous season in Atlanta, Sanders was more than happy to bolt the Peach State when the Patriots showed interest in him. He said the "history of the team, the organization (and) the head coach" were the biggest inducements to come to Foxboro.

"They just told me to come in here and compete, and whatever role it is, just go out there and do my role," he said. "I've been around this league for a long time, and I knew they weren't just signing me and that was it. I knew they were going to bring young guys in, and that's part of the NFL. You've got to go out there and do your job, whatever that job is."

So far in this training camp, the Patriots are testing Sanders at both cornerback and safety.

"Lewis is working hard," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said Monday. "He's another guy that has had a lot of different responsibilities for us in the kicking game, playing both corner and safety defensively. He's got good experience in a couple different systems, so I don't think anything he's doing here is anything that new. It's just a question on some new terminology or adapting it to a different situation but he is an experienced guy and he keeps showing up.

"He shows up with a play or two everyday and he is a hard working guy," the coach added. "He's tough, he's been a physical player, been productive in the kicking game and we look forward to seeing him play."

That first opportunity will come 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Ch. 5, 64), when the Patriots take on the Baltimore Ravens in the preseason opener at Gillette.

"It definitely feels good," Sanders said. "Training camp is training camp, but you definitely look forward to when those games are starting so you can hit people."

In Sanders, Jason Webster and Fernando Bryant, the Patriots have three long-tenured defensive backs that are new to the team but wise in the ways of the NFL. They also have several young defensive backs, and Sanders said that those lads are paying attention to the experience displayed by their older peers each day in practice.

"The young guys, they come in and they want to learn," Sanders said. "That's the thing. They want to learn, they want to get better, they want to get more knowledge, so they're going out there and listening to what we have to say and performing."

But you're never too old to pick up new tricks, he added - which is why, as he attempts to learn how to play safety in this camp, Sanders said he's been picking the brain of 15-year veteran Rodney Harrison.

"Rodney helps out a lot," Sanders said. "If he sees you struggling, he definitely helps out a lot. You see him on TV and you see how he makes plays, and just to come here and know that he's been doing it so long, any knowledge that he has certainly helps."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.