Patriots defensive back, and Rutgers product, Devin McCourty, covers some Super Bowl Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Do you see any of Bill Belichick in his son, safeties coach Steven Belichick?
A: Oh definitely, they talk alike (smile). He always says to me, he’ll ask me about different things in the safety group, and he’ll tell me, “I don’t want to just get up and talk the whole time, because I sound just like my dad. No one wants to hear a double of my dad.”
But I think the cool thing with Steve is his knowledge of the game of not just when he got into coaching, but when he was able to be here and talk to all the other great players that were here playing at the time when he was in high school and those different things, and they would tell him things. And then he’s a guy who gets to sit down with his dad and watch football probably his whole life growing up on Sundays where he was off. He has a lot of knowledge about the game in general, not just the safety position, but just how to make winning plays whether it be offense, defense or special teams.
Q: Do you think he will be a head coach some day?
A: I think so, if that’s what he really wants to do. I think for him right now, it’s his first year. He’s just getting into it. I think he’s doing a great job with enjoying the process, and he’s been getting better all throughout the year.
Q: What is the best sarcasm you ever heard from Bill?
A: Often times he’ll tell you that he’s not a football player, he’s not good. But if you do something bad enough on that film, whether it’s a punt or punting it, a guy trying to block, a guy trying to tackle, a throw, he’ll sit up there: “I mean, if we’re going to put you out there to do that — I can go out there and do that!” And he’ll be dead serious, he won’t crack a smile. And that’s probably one of the lowest points you feel when he says that to you (smile).
Q: What would it mean to Tom Brady to become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls, and to accept the Lombardi Trophy from Roger Goodell?
A: Honestly, I don’t think he cares about that. … Neither part really. When you talk to Tom, he still plays this game because of the feeling of being in that locker room, the process of being with guys, and him being able to teach guys, show guys things, him seeing guys that have come in not winning games, guys like Chris Hogan — who came in who’s the third or fourth option in Buffalo, comes in here has a great year.
[Brady] enjoys all that. He enjoys being the older guy in the locker room that shows guys what to do and how to win games. And if we can win that Super Bowl, that is the end of the journey, you’ve reached an ultimate goal, … I mean, he’s 39, I don’t think he still plays the game for just records. … What you do to your body, that record is nice, but I don’t know if it’s worth the same pain, and I’m like 99 percent sure he doesn’t still play this game at 39 because of Roger Goodell (chuckle). I’m pretty sure on that.
Q: Does Belichick still have the same fire he had when you first got to New England in 2010?
A: Yeah. He’s consistent. He’s not a screamer, yeller, he’s a guy that’s going to be on you when you think it’s great, he’s gonna be there to tell you it’s not that great. When you think it’s really bad, he’s gonna be there to tell you, “It’s decent, we got a shot,” and he’s never changed that. I’ve been on teams where we got blown out. I was here in 2010, went to Cleveland, we got blown out, and he ripped us in the locker room. That’s what he felt needed. We go to Kansas City, we get blown out on a Monday night game [in 2014], and you come in the locker room ready for Bill to just dig in you, and he tells you, “It just wasn’t our night.”
Q: For Jets fans who are pulling their hair out every year, do you expect Belichick to coach until he’s 70 and Tom to play until he’s 45?
A: I would not be surprised (smile). Haven’t seen those guys slow down yet.
Q: Who are quarterbacks you haven’t intercepted who you want to intercept?
A: Oh Matt Ryan. That’s the one and only at this point (smile).
Q: Favorite interception?
A: I’d probably say my first one [Oct. 24, 2010]. It was Philip Rivers, who is a great quarterback in this league, he’s accomplished a ton. That year I went to the Pro Bowl, and we were sitting on the bus, and he came up to me, he talked about the interception, and that moment I realized, “Oh, Philip Rivers knows who I am.” And two, I realized what it took to be a great player.
A guy threw an interception … Week 6 … it was probably like the second quarter — he remembered who intercepted the ball! We talked about the coverage we were in. The great players, like everything eats ’em up, they want to know everything. He was kind of trying to pick my brain at that time, like, “Why did you do that?” It was interesting to me.
Q: How ticked off does Brady get when you intercept him in practice?
A: He always gets mad, but I kept the first time I picked Brady, even though you only usually keep game interceptions.
Q: Describe the Patriot Way.
A: I think on the outside there’s this mystique that when you come here. Bill sits you down and he gives you a sheet of paper with bullet points of “Do this, Don’t do this,” and at the top it says “Patriot Way.” And it’s really not. It’s just guys that want to win. Bill always talks about mental toughness which is doing what’s best for the team even though it might not be what’s best for you. And I think mental toughness kind of best describes what we kind of view as the Patriot Way of coming to work, doing your job, not worrying about the different distractions that could be going on, and just putting the team first.
Q: Do you think your buddy Darrelle Revis can make the switch to safety?
A: He’s a very talented player, he’s been successful in this league for years. Honestly, I don’t think he has to move to safety. I played with him just a couple of years ago, I’ve trained with him. I don’t think that that’s a must for him to do to still play in this league. But I think if he wants to, his work ethic, how he studies the game, he’ll be able to pick it up.
Q: Is former Rutgers teammate Eric LeGrand, who suffered a spinal cord injury in 2010, inspirational to you?
A: Oh definitely. I think partly because I’ve seen his work ethic, I saw him come in as a 230-pound linebacker, put on weight to go play noseguard for our defense and still be productive, still run down on kickoffs. … There was nothing he wouldn’t do.
Q: Favorite Rutgers memory?
A: Other than Senior Day, I think Senior Day’s awesome, but for me it was the Papa John’s Bowl game in Birmingham, Alabama [a 29-23 win over N.C. State]. It was my redshirt junior year, so it was the senior year for all the guys I had come in with, with my brother, it was the last game I played with him on the same team. That game was just a great feeling of guys that really became like brothers to me that ended up leaving that year.
Q: Do you still have a chip on your shoulder because Rutgers was the only school that offered you?
A: Definitely. [Patriots linebackers coach] Brian Flores went to Boston College and they offered [my twin brother] Jason and they didn’t offer me. Sometimes when their coaches come up — they’re not even the same coaches — I always get on him about how they didn’t offer me.
Q: What are some adjectives that describe you as a player?
A: I would just say a smart football player that tried to be in position, more off film study and knowledge than physical athleticism or different things like that. I would say a tough football player that is gonna give everything he has.
Q: Describe defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
A: I think he’s a smart guy, but I think he knows that he understands the Xs and Os at a high level, and he’s very willing to adapt to who’s here, what do we need to do for who’s here in 2016 compared to who was here in ’15 or ’14. He doesn’t have an ego where it’s, “We’re gonna do this the way I thought back when I first started doing this, and that’s it.” No, he’s very open-minded, willing to listen to the players. I think as a player, you like playing for him ’cause, you know, he’s gonna work his butt off, he’s gonna put in a ton of hours just to hope that he has you prepared enough and doesn’t let you down.
Q: Owner Robert Kraft.
A: The cool thing on Mr. Kraft is how hands-on he is. He has a ton of businesses, but he walks through the locker room, so anytime you want to talk to him about anything, you feel free to go talk to him. I think that’s awesome. He knows really the whole team by the time everyone’s here for a while.
Q: What is it like being a captain?
A: It’s an honor. For me, I always see it as a duty that players have elected me to kind of represent them. So I just try to always get a heartbeat of how the team is and how they feel. We have captains meetings all the time with Bill, and he wants that, he wants us to be able to relay to him how the team feels, if there’s any issues, if there’s something we need to fix — even small things all the way down to how the showers are or something. You have to take that responsibility and do it well. That’s key to the guys being able to have a good open relationship with Coach and Coach with the guys.
Q: Your recollections of Randy Moss before he was traded your rookie season.
A: Randy was hilarious. The cool thing for me was he was here and you walk in the locker room, you’ll see 20 chairs around one area, and as you get closer, you’ll just hear Randy’s voice telling a story, telling jokes. And I think obviously, the on-the-field part, he taught me a lot, not just from telling me, but from beating me time after time in practice my rookie year in training camp (smile). But the cool thing to me was once he went to Tennessee after, I would talk to my brother [who has played for the Titans since 2009], and he would tell the exact same things. [Moss] was very genuine in who he was, and you knew that wasn’t changing.
Q: Did you and your twin brother try to fool girls on dates?
A: The first time his wife came to our apartment in college, I answered the door and tried to be him, and she was like, “I’ve looked at hundreds of Facebook pictures. I could tell the difference.”
Q: What appealed to you about the Giants as a free-agent option before re-signing with the Patriots in 2015?
A: For me, it was just being home [Nyack]. It seems like a very well-run organization.
Q: Why was Nyack such a great place to grow up?
A: For me, it was community. At that time, I knew pretty much everybody in Nyack. You got a complex full of kids, whether it was playing in the back, playing football or something, playing basketball, we did everything together, riding bikes around the town. I have tremendous pride in Nyack and Rockland.
Q: You never went to a Giants or Jets game?
A: We didn’t have the money to go to a pro game. The only game I ever went to growing up was a WNBA game. There were tickets on sale upper deck for like $9 dollars or something.
Q: Who are athletes in other sports you admire?
A: I’m a big Kevin Durant fan. Between Durant and [Russell Westbrook], I like both of those guys. When you see guys do different things each year or sustain a certain level, it means they’re working on their game, they’re improving all throughout the offseason, so I have a lot of respect for when I watch guys do that no matter if they just won a championship, if they got a huge contract, that they respect the game enough to every year, every offseason, put in a ton of work to see how much better they can get.
Q: Who were your boyhood idols?
A: I was a big Emmitt Smith fan. Me and my brother were big Cowboy fans, so Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders, [Michael] Irvin, [Troy] Aikman, that whole group growing up, we loved watching them.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Wilt Chamberlain, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King.
Q: You’re not supposed to say Wilt Chamberlain around Boston.
A: He dominated. I would love to know his mindset.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Hitch.”
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: J. Cole.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Soul food — macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, sweet potatoes … big Thanksgiving fan too (smile).