March 22, 2023 • 46 mins
In this edition of Pats from the Past we sit down with Devin and Jason McCourty immediately following Devin's retirement ceremony at Gillette Stadium. Among the highlights are Devin’s reaction to the organization’s ceremony, A look back at their “Super Season” and what’s Devin’s next chapter in life look like? Plus, In the beginning-the McCourty’s were not always a package deal. Hear the fascinating recruiting story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's time for another episode of Pats on the Past
podcast Matt Smith with Paul Brillo, and I think we
just I think we just sort of slipped this one
under the wire light right absolutely the he's merely cold.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
As far as from the past, I was like, dang,
from the past already, some of them a more recent past.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But uh, two's always better than one. Devin and Jason
mccordy are joining with us, joining us. Thank you guys
for being here. Really appreciate it, no problem. And as
we're taping this today, we're coming almost literally after Devin's
retirement ceremony.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How was it? That was awesome? And I know, like
Stacy text me about doing it. Until Stacey I was like, yeah, man,
if if it'll help you, I'll do it. But it
was for me it was awesome because so many people
played a major part in my career. And I think
oftentimes for players, like we always get honored for certain things.
But I think being able to do that press conference
(01:01):
got me to highlight some people who meant a lot
to my career. Obviously you know Bill and missed the Craft,
but also my mom, my wife, other people in this
building like Donna Robin and Miss Nancy, who don't you
know they never really get recognized for how much they
do for us as player. So I just love being
able to do that. You didn't say, brother, I didn't
(01:24):
mean I did mention, you know, but he.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
May have been the m v P of that ceremony.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Talk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Uncle Jason was on it talking. Oh yeah, I mean
uncle Jason was.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I would tell you, Uncle j Ma, but I would
tell anybody like, he's doing a good job on TV,
but if they want to hire him to be a nanny,
he'd be off incredible the more you can do. My
wife was very proud of the man that she has
molded me into, so I know if she's listening and
she's smiling from just.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
So let everybody knows. Three children were there, and I
think it was the youngest one, right, Yeah, Chase, you
were doing some chasing.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
He was active exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And Jason was was tasked with that duty. But just
absolutely adorable kids. Thank you, ridiculously adorable Jason.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
How important was it for you to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
For this very important I've been up since about four
thirty in the morning. Did the show this morning, Good
Morning Football on NFL Network. That goes my shameless plug.
And then after that, me and my middle child, my
son Kit, and he took off a day of school
and he got to come hang out at the studio
and then we jumped in the car and headed up
(02:29):
here for me. And to be honest, I've never been
to a retirement ceremony. I've been on four different teams,
and you typically throughout my career, you don't have guys
that play on one team for this long and mean
this much to one organization. So I didn't really know
what I was walking into and being able to sit
there in the front row and watch highlights from the
(02:49):
very start of Dev's career, him there talking about he
can't pronounce the name of the tight end and how
much I don't remember that when I came. That's a
pretty good fun. That was when I was like, did
I not know Gronkowski? But I'm like, after I got drafted,
I wasn't paying attention. I was hyped. I just remember
(03:09):
some big tight end got drafted, So I'm not even
gonna try to say his last name. And then just
hearing the picture perfect answers he had, like I just
want to come in, I just want to help the team.
And if you interview him now, he says none of
those things. It's these quirky responses. He's trying to make
you laugh. So just seeing his maturation throughout the process
and being able to sit there and hear mister Kraft
(03:31):
and hear Bill speak about him and talk about visiting
him at Rutgers and just the lens that everybody in
this organization sees him through. It was awesome obviously to
be a part of her for three years and witness
it up close, and that thing now on this given
day where you don't always give a chance to highlight
people and give them their flowers. Hearing everybody speak about Dev,
(03:52):
to see his kids go up there, his wife, my
mom was it was really special. I know my older
brother was back at home. He was texing because he
was watching it. And those are the people kind of
my mom and my older brother throughout our entire lives
that have pushed us. And Dev telling that story about
Boston College. He still has a chip on his shoulder
about something. He's like every other NFL player, you find
(04:14):
some type of doubt to motivate you and push you.
Saw I was an honor to be able to be
here and witness it.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
We're gonna get to BC in a second, but I
just one more fall upon the retirement. You were probably
at Sweet Feats back in August or whenever that was Kfeazy,
You remember that one. I remember like, so you're like
sitting there going, oh, yeah, this is great that like
Kevin Fox, these are all great Patriots James White, Wow,
And you sort of said it today like it seemed
(04:39):
like you were blown it. Like their coaching staff's there,
all these players who are working out and everything like that,
that's how important you were to them. Yeah, that's got
to blow you away.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It is crazy because, like James White, sh just happened
before the season. You know. But when I was younger
and I went to I think the first one I
went to was k Fault and I spoke today about
what Feez he meant to me and how he helped
me when I was young. But when I went to his,
I was like, yeah, a lot of people like I
(05:10):
know what he did for me. He's done that for
a long time, fourteen years. When I went to Vince's,
same thing, Ninko, same thing. You just don't you don't
put yourself in that place, because for one, that means
it's the end. So when you're playing, you don't you
don't like to think about the end like that. But
for as many guys that come, like we're at the
end of towards the end of March, like there's no
(05:31):
guys really here, and I think for them just to
take the opportunity to come here and just listen to
me one more time after they had to listen to
me for you know, so long, it's been an honor.
And I think mostly I missed that. I miss the
everyday interaction, like I obviously keep in touch with guys,
but that every day without any effort, getting the opportunity
(05:53):
to talk, laugh and joke. I won't have that anymore,
and that's what I'll miss between the players and the coaches,
of just being able to do that throughout my career.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So you've been obviously such a big part of this
community and this organization for so long. Matt and I
feel like we know a lot of the stuff. We
both left that that that ceremony today and the first
thing we talked about was that story that you guys
just touched on with with Boston College, And I didn't
know any of that stuff was that public. I find
(06:22):
that really interesting. I just from from the perspective of
the two guys that were involved. I'd like you to
tell that story a little bit because I don't think
that's common knowledge. And it was really really interesting that
the school one school would come at one of you.
I just thought that was really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Like Paul and I were soon were walking out of it.
Wouldn't you just because you're a nice person, go okay,
the other twin can't play, but you know what, will
placate him just to make him feel good that we're
here and give them five minutes. But we really want
the other like believe that.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
That's why that was stuff going so honestly, when we
came out, New Hampshire offered both of us, and Kent
State offered him one offer me, BC offered him, wouldn't
offer me, and Rutgers offer him first before they offered me,
but Rutgers decided to invite me on the official visit.
When they came to our house, they sat with both
(07:12):
of us. So for me, it was the fact that
Tom O'Brien and BC came. I love because I don't
so and I'll tell you why it's not well known.
When Tom O'Brien came and they spoke to him, I
wasn't like allowed, like obviously I could have went, but
(07:32):
it was kind of like, well, we don't really need
you in this meeting.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And for me, when Rutgers came and Coach Rizzy and
Coachiano came, they had us both in there, And whether
they really wanted me at that moment, I don't think so,
because they didn't offer me at that moment, but they
still allowed me to be a part of the process
of the recruiting of talking to me, and I thought
like that was like common sense, Like I'm a seventeen
(07:57):
year old kid, Like there's no reason to try to
make me feel worse about not getting a scholarship. The
BC stuck with me for that reason, like you live
in a small house, like I'm sitting on the basically
on the other end of that wall, not hearing it.
But why I never like bashed them with talking about it,
because like I didn't think it would have been fair
for like me, the position I had as a patriot
(08:18):
to talk about the school and whoever the coach would
have been like right now, Coach Hafley's there, and I
like coach Hafley. I like, you know, I like their staff.
I've been there, so I never wanted to like make
it seem like I didn't like them and put negative
press because of all my hard feelings. And I laugh
and joke now I say hard feelings towards Tom Over,
like I get it, you're recruiting guys, You're gonna miss
(08:39):
on guys. But it all came full circle his senior year,
my redshirt junior year, we played NC State in the
bowl game, coach by Tom O'Brien, who left Boston College
shortly after UH we visited. I get the interception that
seals the game. I threw my wolf pack up started
celebrating because other former Patriot not a long time but Taekwon.
(09:02):
Underwood also had a best friend, Rich Gannell, who committed
and played at BC. They were high school teammates, both
stars of the team. BC also wouldn't offer him, and
he blocked a punt that game or picked up a
block punk, So we enjoyed that moment for us kind
of like you were wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So I mean we were talking about this, Devin. Everybody
needs a little something to stre them on. Not everybody's
a five star recruit. Not everybody is, you know, a
parade All American or whatever, and you might need something
to motivate you. The fact that this guy's in your
house and he's not choosing to speak with you as
an eighteen year old kid. You can take that with
(09:42):
you to your twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, and
that fire keeps burning.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I mean, and then then you get drafted to
the Patriots. So now it's like, man, the school that's
right in the backyard, Like, how cool would it have been?
Because I think there is a chance that we both
got offered by BC, that you know, if we came
on a visit to together instead of just him coming
on his visit, there's a chance that we might have
liked And I remember thinking that when I got drafted
like Dann, I'd have probably been pretty cool. Like if
(10:08):
I would have went to BC and got drafted as
like a first round or to the New England Patriots,
like that would have been because I think about all
the kids now that come out of BC, and so
many articles get written like, man, the Patriot should signed him,
or the Patriot should draft him from BC. But I
mean again, it's a part of the story that at
the time I was really angry about. But it's a
part of the reason I'm here today as well, So
(10:30):
you gotta enjoy it. And I think on top of that,
it doesn't just stop with BC. Like Dev had a
chip on the shoulder even when it came to Rutgers,
and I remember, like he said, I got offered first,
and then he got offered. When we went our official
visit and we had a high school teammate that was
already at Rutgers, Ron Girault, who coach Ciano, went to
and was like, Hey, what's the difference between these two,
because we've already offered Jason and we're still recruiting Death.
(10:54):
He was like, they're the same player. Devin just got
hurt their senior year, so Jason seems like he had
the better year that year. And that's when Rutgers finally
decided to offer Dev. So even once Dev got drafted,
he still had like this chip on his shoulder life.
I always remind you want me, yeah him, you offered
me just to get my brother, and I got here
(11:14):
and I had to prove to you guys that I
was just as good so, like I said, he's he's
always had that chip and he plays with it. And
I think kind of credit Tom O'Brien because this guy's
played thirteen years at an extremely high level.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I mean, that was one of the things that we
were talking about. I was like, I mean, they're they're twins.
They both played for a long time in the National
Football League and had a lot of success. How different
could they have been as seventeen eighteen year old players?
And that makes sense that you got you got banged
up because you had the red shirt and Jason you didn't.
That's why you would drafted first, right you played the
year before, right?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, if only, if only uh, Robert Craft and Bill
Belichick would have drafted, maybe I would have had three.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Crazy think about it. But I mean, you know, and
I don't. I guess you don't harbor any kind of illa.
Well not at all, no, I know, but like it's
not unusual. You're human to think about that, right.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, for sure. And I think that's the beauty about
each and every guy that has a career or whatever
your journey is, because it's unique to just you. And
I think my journey helped dev along the way because
my rookie year in the league. I go to the
Tennessee Titans under Jeff Fisher and he gets drafted a
year later under Bill Belichick and the Patriots, and the
(12:22):
way they ran their two organizations couldn't be any more different.
So Dev senior year, the entire time, I'm telling them
this is what the NFL is like, this is how
we do things, this, that, and the third and then
the next year he's like, you lied to me. The
NFL is nothing like what you just described. And once
he got here, I was like, I definitely get it.
And then obviously for our paths to be able to
(12:43):
come together nine years later, we both when I got
a chance to come to New England, I think it
made it that much better that my journey kind of
went aroundabout way to lead us back to each other.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So Dev, I'll I'll tie the knot on the Tom
O'Briant thing for you. I had a chance, you know,
from my high school ever high school here in Massachusetts,
I spoke at our varsity club banquets, as you know,
one of the award guys for alumni, and Tom O'Brien
was one of the speakers that night too, and it's
kind of a low key, you know, it's not an
overly formal event. So this sometimes you're talking and people
(13:17):
are still eating and the clanking of the glasses, like
you don't have everybody's attention. Tom O'Brien didn't like that.
Tom O'Brien was very upset. He's like finger pointing people
and telling people to stop talking as he's talking. I
was like, I was like, Wow, what a hard ass.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So that's like Tijan Tom O'Brien, he's not He's welcome
back and there forgetting. Althoughways had a lot of every
high school players over the years.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So you got to respect that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You haven't had a long to really think about it
because you just made this decision. If you look back
at the thirteen years, and I'm going to put the
pressure on you, is there you know the highlight of
your career is it the eighteen season and how that
season ended, being able to play with your brother and
to cap it off with the Super Bowl championship.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, no doubt. If I had to pick one season,
it would be that season, not only because we won
another championship and it was with him, but it was
the way that season was like him at the end
of training camp, everyone wondering if he's gonna get cut
or make the team. And then you know, we beat Houston.
Week one, we go and get absolutely destroyed by Jacksonville
(14:22):
on the road in Jacksonville. Then go on the road
to Detroit Sunday night football, get destroyed again, win some games,
Miami miracle. Then you know, I think we kind of, yeah,
we kind of reset after the Miami Miracles, like we
need to go win this game in Pittsburgh. We go
down to Pittsburgh and lose again, play a good game
and lose chance to win that win the division that week,
(14:44):
and then it kind of turned into like, oh damn,
like we just lost two games in December, like that's
not what we do here. And I still vividly remember
Bill coming in and we had Jets and Bills imbo
and he comes in, he we got nothing but playoff
games left. If we do we're supposed to do, everything
will work out. And sure enough, we go win the
(15:06):
two games, Houston loses, We end up with a buy
in the first round to two seed, and then you know,
we go to Kansas City. We beat Kansas City on
the road first time. I think since it was four
maybe that the team had won on the road in
the AFC Championship Game. And then we go and have
a Super Bowl that was total opposite of the year before.
(15:28):
We couldn't stop it. We couldn't stop Philly at all
as a defense the year before. So to go have
that performance, I always look at that year was like
the most up and downs. But I was an older player.
I was like even more of a veteran then, because
there were no other guys that count on, Like there
were no Vincent and Gerard, Like I didn't have those
guys on defense. So to be able to have that
(15:51):
team and you know, myself high being like those guys
out were here for a long period of time leading
that group was a lot of fun. Man. And then
this guy made the story just so much better because
his energy and everyone wanted to give him so much
credit of like, man, you deserve this your finally, and
how he just kept telling people like why do I
(16:12):
deserve this more than anybody else? Like, yeah, I worked hard,
but like there's a ton of guys in the NFL
that worked hard. So I thought we had a great
mix of guys like him Danny Shelton, like they went
oh sixteen the year before, like they were back they
were on our team about to play in a super
Bowl game after going oh in sixteen. So I just
thought we had so many cool storylines from individuals, but
(16:33):
ultimately like that team, uh, to me, was just a
great story.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I can only imagine what your mom thinks when she
sees the video at the end of the Kansas City game,
because when I look at it, even we all stop,
I mean, I still get almost choked up about it
when I see it, like, because it's surreal and here's
two kids who probably did that in your backyard or
on the playground at school and everything, and it happened.
(16:58):
And I know you got to close the deal because
it would have shocked if we have done all that right, right,
But how amazing was that moment?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Oh, it was awesome and you said we did it.
Growing up, I can remember getting ready for Sunday Pop
Warner games and me and Dev would go outside on
the pavement and start throwing the ball and we'd go
over all of our plays that we were going to
run later on in the game, just to prepare ourselves.
And now from that moment waking up Sunday morning to
now fast forwarding years later. Now we're waking up on
(17:29):
a Sunday morning and we're walking into a stadium getting
ready to play in the Super Bowl that he's done.
This is his fifth time being in this game. And
I think the best moment wasn't on the field after
the game. It was in the locker room as we're
going and we're passing around THEFT Championship trophy and now
we're talking about going to the game. And for me,
(17:50):
it was so surreal. And I said it when I
was holding the trophy. This is the first time I
get to go to the game on my own accord,
and I'm not hitting Dev up to figure out the
logistics and taking care of the family, but I'm actually
getting invited to the game. So for me, it was
truly special. Dev knows the Super Bowl in Houston. I
never know the numbers the Super Bowl in Houston. I
(18:10):
wasn't fifty fifty one, yet they're all the same to
me other than fifty three.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Try having to write about it, Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Ever, I can only imagine the hardship these guys go
through having to write about Super.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Bowl and that's the proper spot, oh tough life.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So it was just it was remarkable and I think
to be able to go through it all and obviously
have him alongside me, but I just remember being in
that locker room like I'm finally getting a chance to go.
And as I was saying, the Super Bowl in Houston,
I remember leading up to when they won that AFC
Championship game, I remember saying to my wife, I'm not
going to the super Bowl this year. It was just
(18:47):
like at that point, it wasn't jealousy, but there was
some envy within it of we're both in the same
sport each and every year. I work my ass off
all off season, to the point where me and Dev
would be training sometimes and he'd be like to like,
there's no need to do this, Like this isn't this
isn't the reason you're not getting there. You're just killing
yourself and just trying so hard. Because I was on
(19:10):
the field in Arizona when he won that game and
I got a chance to witness it as his twin brother,
and it was awesome, and I was just like, I
want to take this back to Tennessee and I want
to get to this game. I remember when he made
it to the Super Bowl, was like, I'm not I'm
not going to the game.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Like was he busting your balls or was he being
cheeriosh about this? No, he was as far as working
like why are you working so hard? It's not gonna
happen fit.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
And I don't say that from the standpoint because I mean,
anybody that's been around this guy, he's one of the
hardest working guys in this sport. And he was saying
it to me of just like there's a certain level
where it's like are you working harder or working smart?
It was just like this isn't necessary to continue to
approve and get better. So I remember then it was
probably like the Monday of the Super Bowl and I
said to my wife, I was like, ah, I gotta go.
(19:51):
And we had just had a son, and I ended
up taking my daughter with me, who was I think
three at the time, and flying out to Houston. As
much as I kind of was going through stuff in
my own head of wanting to be in that game,
I was like, I can't miss this. This is too important.
And I had a blast down at the game, and
as always, I hosted the family, taking them out to eat,
handling tickets and all of those other things so Dev
(20:13):
could focus on the game. So it was a long
journey in a long process. So to finally get to
that Super Bowl in twenty eighteen, it was just it
was so surreal awesome.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
The Kansas City game to me, you know, just we
don't necessarily talk a lot about the memories of the
actual games because everybody knows the highlights, but that game
to me stood out. I mean, I've been here over
twenty years. That to me still is my favorite game
just to have watched. Yeah, just the amount of tension
in that second half that you guys were playing through
(20:44):
on both sides of the ball. You shut them down
completely for one half and now we're holding on for
deal life rolling in the second half.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
And forty three game earlier in the season, right, I
remember sitting on the bench at the end of that game.
We end up winning forty forty three. Steve kicks the
kick and we win the game, and we're sitting there
as a defense and Dron Harmon, Devin mccordy, Patrick Chung Gilmore,
John Jones just sitting on the bench and everybody has
like this look on their face because we just gave
(21:13):
up forty points. I'm like, what the hell is wrong
with y'all? We just won the game. I don't care
if we gave up sixty. You know how many of
these games I've been a part of where like the
offense getst the ball and you're just like, we have
no shot. We actually went down and won the game,
and I remember that we laughed about that moment after
because like he kind of started off with me, Danny Shelton,
Josh Gordon, we were all on that team. I didn't
win a game the year before, and not only that,
(21:35):
I was on a Titans team that was two and fourteen.
That was three and thirteen. So my perspective on what
it meant to win a game and how hard it
was was totally different to a lot of the guys
that have been around here. So you take that game
and then you fast forward to the playoff game and
Bill kind of hit on all the x's and os
of how we were able to win that game. And
I think that's what was cool, because I think in
twenty eighteen, our secondary became a weapon for us from
(21:58):
the standpoint of we didn't need a lot of direct
rules from the coaching staff on how we want to
do things, like he said, like stopping Tyreek Hill turned
into me and John Jones talking about where he lined up,
how I thought he should play, how he thought, and
like we literally would watch film and be like, oh,
I think you should be here. They us do this
(22:18):
all right, if they bring hardman in and they put
them both here, we're gonna do this. And that continue
from twenty eighteen nineteen, Like anytime we played this team,
we would have like these rules and things we would
do that. If you ask the coaching staff, they'd be like, yeah,
I think they're playing like this because but it was
really just our unit that was dictating and doing things
like that. So that was also a cool moment because
(22:41):
we had grown as a group. You know, Jay Jones
got here in sixteen, Stephan seventeen, myself, Do and Chung
had been here playing together since all of us playing
a lot since twenty fourteen. So adding him in eighteen
and I felt like because he was my twin brother,
like it didn't feel like a new guy. And then
(23:01):
e Rowe was here. We had a group that had
now had like two or three years playing together. Added
a young guy like J. C. Jackson was just a
straight out playmaker. We were able to do things in
that secondary. That for me was the first time that
wasn't like mandated by Bill. It was kind of like
if you come to the sideline and something looks wrong
you but I have a good reason why you did it.
(23:23):
And he said I remember him saying to me, like,
I want you to do what you thinks best, because
nine out of ten times I'm going to agree with
what you want to do, so I'd rather just go
do it on the field. And like since then it
was just like, all right, we have some ownership of
how we want to do certain things. Let's just go
do it.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So that's interesting perspective right there, because I think the fan,
the neophyight, the outsider. I look at fourteen, okay, and
so I get seduced maybe by Revis Okay, Browner, Okay,
that was good. You guys were younger and everything like that.
But maybe you didn't have the experience in fourteen. Maybe
you guys are just going off of tremendous ability, great numbers.
(24:04):
Chandler was on that team, so you know have the
past rush to go with it a little bit as well.
But now you've got the experience that you gained from
all those different battles that you went through so that
you can do the things which more osmosis, like I
know what we're doing here, like Tom says all the time,
I know the answer to the test before you give
it to me. So is that maybe the difference between
that fourteen secondary and the eighteen.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Sent definitely for me. Now, that fourteen secondary was good,
like you said me Chung Deron, but from a corner
debt wise, like Malcolm Butler was our sixth corner right,
like we had Alfonso Dinner, Kyle Arrington, Logan, Ryan Reeves Brown,
We had so many good players. But I was like
that was year five for me. So yeah, I was
(24:46):
like I was understanding how to play the game. I
was playing probably some of my better football in my career.
But when you talk about being a leader and like
running things from a team standpoint, Mayo and Vince did that.
Like I controlled where we need to line up in
the secondary, what we needed to do from what coach
said the game plan was, I was gonna make sure
we got to execute the game plan. The difference in
(25:09):
eighteen was this is the game plan. But this is
how we're gonna win the game. Yeah, stick to the
game plan, but also if you need to change some
things and do things differently, go like, don't worry about
what any coach is gonna say. It was like, we
trust you just as much as we trust a coach
telling you to do something. So if you see it,
go do it. And in fourteen I didn't have that
(25:30):
kind of confidence yet to do that. And you know,
I think that's what made eighteen special for me.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Ownership, Yes, you would ownership at eighteen, and that's the difference.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, Like in fourteen, it was like we were all good,
Like those guys came here because they were good, and
I saw it as that, like, man, I just want
those guys to feel welcome, whereas in eighteen I felt
more like, all right, those guys are all ready to go,
but like I gotta be the captain of this. I
gotta help these guys understand how we want to play.
And it wasn't a like I'm a top of the
(26:00):
mountain better than you, but it was like, hey, if
I if I can lead this, and then everybody else
will fill in and do to their roles. Like no
one challenged me more in our room, in our secondary
room than him. And it wasn't like we were about to
break out in fistfight. It was like, now I'll tell
you why I'm right, and I'll tell you why you're wrong,
and we go back and forth and then we go
in the locker room and laugh about it because we
(26:21):
challenge each other that way. And I think that's what
made that team so special because we were all a
lot of us were around the same age. Then we
had a couple of young guys, like it was just
a great mess of guys that I thought came together
to build something that wasn't established in the beginning, Like fourteen.
When those guys came, it was like you better, you
better win the Super Bowl. Like you just put two
(26:42):
Pro Bowl players from another team on your team, Revas
and Browner, Like you need to go win. So it
was a little different, but it was I mean, it
was still so much fun. That's my second thing was
it was my first ever win, so that was definitely
special too.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
When did you recognize a moment you talked about when
you came in guys like Kevin Falk and Vincent those
guys and you mentioned Vincent Gerard sort of ran that too.
Did you recognize the moment that you turned into that guy?
Did you sort of understand it?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Because they were good that transition, they were gone. And
I keep saying that, like everyone talks about the future
of this team from a leadership standpoint, and I've told
I've told Doug that, I've told bit not as much
because Ben already kind of does that, but I've told
some of the younger players. I was like, you're gonna
look around and the guys that you saw doing things
(27:34):
will be gone. So that means the only other person
that can do it is you, or you let somebody
that doesn't understand or see what you've you've seen and
how it's supposed to be done. You let them take over,
I said, But then you have to think about do
you want to live in a world where because I
don't want to do what I let somebody else do,
and I let them do it wrong. So for me,
(27:54):
twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen really is like the mesh
of some newer guys. But it was like me and
High Hi had been here since twenty twelve. Me since
twenty ten, I thought had to be more vocal and
Hi had to take a little time to fall into
his Like if you ever get to know hw, he
(28:14):
like rebels against everything that he knows. He is like
he never wanted to be a captain, even though he
was like the ultimate captain, got voted all the time.
But I thought we all kind of looked up and
everyone filled a role like Chung was never super vocal,
but Chung was a leader in his way of being tough,
being tough and filling every role on the defense, safety, linebacker,
(28:36):
corner like he did everything. So I always look back,
you know, between myself, Chung and High of really deciding like,
all right, we gotta be the next wave of leaders
of this group. I can remember Mao saying it where
he was coming back in the building and he said
he'd come back and he was just like, who the
hell is this mccordy, Like dev never spoke this much
(28:58):
when I was on the team, and I think that
speaks what he's saying. You didn't have to because there
was a guy doing that. I think now he's moving on,
guys will definitely speak up more because anybody that's played
with death he's one of the loudest people in the building.
Never shuts up. So some guys are happy they finally
can be heard.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
But we like that, right, They like the guys are talking.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
He's right, we do, and so do the fans, And
so the fans now see as side of Devin mccordy.
He's the guy in the huddle every single week. He's
very vocal. He's something very important and generally pretty poignant
to say at that point in time. But that can
be overrated. And I think Bill I you sort of
mentioned that a little bit today. You know, world's filled
with big mouse. You know, it's a kind of leadership
(29:38):
that might get you. We don't know what you're doing
behind the scenes. It's picking a guy up, like you're
saying something's going wrong with their family, you know, or
maybe he's got, you know, something in their personal life.
That's the kind of leadership. What those are the guys
that you probably gravitate to, Like this guy's got my
back and I don't need to hear all the you know,
Ray Ross Siskumba nice, get me wrong and love this stuff,
(30:01):
But it's the other stuff that really really shows you
who the real leaders are. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Oh? Just as an example throughout my entire career. I
gave the same pregame speech that Dev did every single game,
whether I was in Tennessee, whether I was in Cleveland,
did it once I left here in New England, and
I did it in Miami as well. And I would
argue that I gave a better pregame speech every single
Sunday than Devin mccordy. But we didn't win games. No
(30:26):
one cares what you're saying when you don't win games.
And I could be a great leader, give a great
pregame speech, team could just not be as talented as
a team across from us, and we don't win the game,
and no one is gonna say, like, Wow, he's a
great leader. Did you hear the pregame speech he made
before the game. But when you go out there and
you hear the words that Dev says before the Super
(30:46):
Bowl fifty three and he talks about iron and shopping
and iron and picking up your brother, and then you
go out there and win the game. And then you
have Coach Belichick after the game and you ask him
about this guy that you perceive as a leader because
what he's saying before the game, and you hear Coach
Belichick talk about well, what he does during the course
of the week. Or you hear Steve Belichick talk about
the fact that he wears the green dot and he's
(31:07):
controlling with the defense here's from the coaching staff. Or
you hear Robert Kraft talk about the work that he
does in the community for the past thirteen years of
his career, or you hear one of his teammates talk about, Hey,
in this moment in the game, we were feeling this,
or something happened, like in the Super Bowl where we
don't get to a play. He yells over to me, Jade,
A're gonna come back to that play. Make sure you're
ready for it. That's when it all comes full circling.
(31:29):
You're like, Wow, it's not the moment before the game
where he yells and he screams and the veins popping
out of his forehead. It's all the six different touch
points that everybody's saying about him that makes him pat
the Patriot, the ultimate team leader. And I think with him,
he just had the total package. And the next group
of leaders on this young team may come in different
forms of fashion, and maybe the vocal guy and then
(31:51):
the behind the scenes guy. I don't know. If you
replace a Devin mccordy with one single leader.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I can only imagine that you put your mother through
growing up because I barely know you.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Don't see how competitive you are. Who's drinking water fastest,
who's good whatever? You guys are uber competitive with each other.
It's legit when you see what happens for him today
and that you were able to be a part of it.
You know, and all the bs aside about I'm better
than you, I'm gonna make more money than you and TV. No,
I'm gonna make more money than you and TV. How
proud of you were to be able to say, wow,
(32:24):
one team thirteen years, look at what all you accomplished,
and it must make you feel great as a brother.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, he doubled my salary in the NFL, so I
have to make more on TV. But it's so special
it's hard to put it into words. The fact that
I can walk in this building and shake hands with
so many people and laughing joke. Bill doesn't make that
trade or go and get me if Devn's not here.
(32:51):
I truly believe that I had a good career before
I got here. I'm on TV because of the three
years that I spent here in the New England Patriots.
Half the time when I'm out of somebody recognizes me.
They think I played for the Patriots for ten plus years,
and they asked me how many rings did I win
while I was here, because they have no idea that
Dev was the one here for thirteen years and I
(33:13):
was just here as a pit stop along my career.
So when you talk about how proud I am, I'm
extremely proud to be able to not only watch Dev
but to be a witness of not only his playing
career but his entire life. When I got here, it
was one thing to learn about who he was in
the building and the way everybody perceived him. And he's
right because in the meeting rooms, no one felt like
(33:34):
they could say he was wrong about something. I had
no problem saying it. But beyond just the ex's and o's.
On Tuesdays, I would be waking up at seven am
on our off day because we'd be driving into Boston
to do something social justice related or something community related
that he was leading the charge on. And those were
the things that get spoken about, but they sometimes can't
(33:55):
go unmentioned. And he was a catalyst behind a lot
of things done off the field as well, So for
me it was special to watch him up there today
during his retirement ceremony. But like you said, to be
in this building for three years, to witness winning the
Super Bowl our first year till my last year here,
his first time not making the playoffs, and that spectrum
(34:18):
and the scale of those things, and we laughed about
it that twenty twenty season because it was chaos. Obviously,
that was COVID. Tom had just left. Cam came in
and I remember the year we won the super Bowl.
It was the most games he had lost in the season.
It was five games. It was the most I had
ever won. It was double digits for the first time
(34:38):
in my career. I he did, He definitely did. And
then I won him a super Bowl that Craft mentioned,
So I gotta make sure I send that check to
Craft for that. And I remember laughing with him at
the end of that season because in New England a
lot of people don't realize it, but even throughout losing seasons,
there's moments of laughter, there's moments of joy. You find
(35:00):
a way to get through the adversity and it builds
the relationships amongst the guys and I remember saying to
Dev at the end of that season, I told you,
losing sucks, but it's not that bad because as we
went through that season and he didn't make the playoffs,
he was going through it and I was happy to
be here to be able to kind of pick him
up and pick the other guys up, like yo, we
just got to keep swinging and those three years were awesome.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
So Jason, I want to give you an opportunity to
talk about that play too that Robert mentioned at the ceremony.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Because he's only talked about it fifty.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Eleven, but he's never talked about it here in the
Patriots studio. So I want to give you an opportunity
of what you saw, what you remember, you know, standing,
you know, being in the in the press box one
hundred miles up. It Just Bringdon Cooks's I'll taking that
all by himself.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah. So it was a beautiful Sunday evening that that
just to lead up to that game, and Dev kind
of alluded to it when he said in twenty eighteen
he realized the secondary could be used as a weapon,
and more specific, corner back room had built a bond
and I think had reached a certain level. I remember
our Corners coach Josh Boyer, after the bye week, we
(36:06):
were a meeting and he said, we went through a
self scout and we realized one of the strengths of
our defense is we can cover anybody on the field,
he says, So I'm just letting you guys know, stretch,
get your hamstrings ready, whatever you need to do. But
we're playing man and man for the rest of the season,
press and we're gonna cover everybody. And it was like okay.
So from that point on, all the way up until
the AFC Championship game, myself, Stefan Gilmour, j C. Jackson,
(36:31):
Jonathan Jones, we played man and man against everybody, and
we all four of us played in whatever form or
fashion had happened. And we get to that week of
that Super Bowl, and I can remember before that game,
Josh Reynolds, Brandon Cooks, Robert Woods, all of them talked
about if they play man, if they played the way
they've been playing, like, we're gonna get at them. And
(36:51):
they had no reason not to think we were gonna
play man. And when you talk, they definitely thought we
were gonna play man. He still I mean the next
year he figured it out when we went to La
But that's a story for another day. So in that
game and that play, we're playing Cover four, and anybody
that's watched kind of the micd up portion of it,
that play happened earlier in the game where Brandon Cooks
(37:14):
runs a post on the front side and we drop
them and I think, no, Gilmour runs with him, but
I don't drop off to help him. And Gilmour is
looking at that play like there's a lot of space
back here for Cooks to run away from him. And
we're playing Cover four and there's a post and over
from the other side, and when we get on the sideline,
something that had become a really good habit for us
is obviously the coaches would go over with the little
(37:37):
blue Microsoft surface that everybody has seen Tom slam before,
Bill Slamm before. We'd sit down and we'd go over
those things, and as players, we didn't get it. And
we talk about it, and Dev's holding the surface on
the sideline and he's like Jay Jay and he shows
the play. If they're gonna come back to this play,
you have to make sure you drop off and you
come back. I'm like I know, I know, I saw
(37:58):
the play. I talked to Steph after I get it,
but that was the communication necessary. Everybody talks about halftime adjustments.
A lot of those adjustments go.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
On on the sign series right.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
After the play series by series, and we make that
adjustment and then the play comes up and Dev always
says it, I'm probably two steps late in my recognition
to be able to get there. And on the front
side between Dev Gilmore and I think Killy dropped it.
Killy dropped the route. The rule that we said after
that game is enough. We never say who was supposed
(38:29):
to telling. So Brandon Cooks is wide open and I
recognized it, probably two seconds too later, and probably two
seconds earlier. He probably doesn't throw the ball, or maybe
I do intercept it, but who knows. But either way,
was able to get back there and make that play,
and that was special for me to make that play.
Had another pass breakup. Man, it was so important to
(38:49):
me to play good in that game because it took
ten years just to get to the playoffs, So being
able to get to a super Bowl, I firmly believe
when I got in that game, like this is the
only super Bowl I'm playing right, there's not gonna be another.
I can remember coming home and obviously here in New
England title Town Boss and everybody be like we got
(39:10):
to get seven. I'd be like seven, Hell no, I'm
deid with one. I don't know. I don't need a
second championship. So it was it was so important to
me to play well in that game, So to have
a play that everybody still talks about or gets mentioned
in very proud of. And I've gotten a chance to
be around Cooks quite a bit. And it's the quote,
like with Kobe Bryance, I hate it had to be
(39:30):
Cooks because he seems like a really good guy, But
I hate it had to be be Cooks because he's
loved in every single building that he's ever been in.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Interesting, we're talking with Jason and Devin mccordy, and as
we kind of wrap things up here a little bit,
as we just were listening to Jason Jason's the TV
Star and again talking about how competitive you are. You
probably don't have anything signed yet, but my guess is
there's a line outside the door.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I hope. So I've been on a couple of interviews,
so you've had some auditions, I'm waiting for them to
slide the offer sheet across the table, like how does
that look to you? But now it's been a lot
of fun, I think, And I think that's what kind
of got led me to even retirement, to being able
to do some of those things during the bye week
and then after the season of like actually enjoying it
(40:13):
like that. Like I talked about earlier, I didn't used
to enjoy watching football because I would watch football and
get angry about maybe I missed the play or us
not playing in the playoffs but doing that and you're
now you got segments that you're talking about, so you
gotta watch the film. You're breaking it down again. I
was enjoying just the game of football at its core.
(40:36):
Didn't matter that I was watching Buffalo and Cincinnati are
about to play like that, didn't matter that, you know,
we should have been both we had a chance to
beat both of them. At the end of the year,
I kind of had that out of my mind and
I started talking about the strengths and what we talked
about playing them, and I was like, oh, I kind
of like this, like this is fun. I do this
during the season. This is how I break down the
(40:58):
game and look at the game to talk about it
and then talk about it with guys like Kurt Warner.
A couple of times, Michael Irvin coach Kauer like sitting
in a CBS production meeting and talking to Coach Cower
about fire zones and how to cover it and how
he talked to Bill about it. I'm like, so I
got coach boy, Bill Belichick, and I'm sitting here with
(41:18):
Bill Cower and We're talking about fire three defense. Like
I was like, when would that ever happen? And that's
when I knew. I was like, I think I'll enjoy
doing this and I might be able to get paid
for exactly right.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
And so, Jason, I'm sure you'd been able to help
him a little bit. You know, like you, what's your
brother's lifestyle doing it like he's on early in the morning.
You've done drivetime morning radio and being on with guys
at six o'clock in the morning, and so you know
how hard that could be.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It might not all be just it's not all glitz
and glamour exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Yeah, But do you get enough of advice baby from
Jason where he can give you some hey, don't do
this because this stinks.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
But you know, and if you.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Can do that, and do you have a preference Devin studio?
Would you ever want to do games? Has anybody approached
you about, you know, doing color or do you like
being in the studio.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
It's not just advice that I give him. I gave him.
I gave him a week audition on the show too.
I booked him. He didn't get me paid. It's easy
to book somebody for free. As I also had a
decision over my head, so you know, they were like,
all right, if he comes, maybe he'll decide if he's
going to retire or not. That seems to be pretty
(42:24):
good news for seven Totten and go up on the show.
It helps. But I would say, obviously the advice, and
so far I've done the studio analyst stuff the most.
So if you actually when I'm comfortable, it would be
that what I'd be willing to do everything like a
college studio analyst, uh, games, like anything, because I want
to just try it all. But the biggest thing that
(42:45):
I got from him was his joy. This past season,
there were times when we jump on FaceTime and we
would talk about a team in their offense because he
was gonna call a game on the radio, and he
was like, what do you what do you see when
you watch this team play? Or what did y'all What
did Bill talk about when y'all played against the Jets?
For their defense and what their defense does well, So
(43:07):
little things like that. When I would talk to him,
I'll be like, man, he's really enjoying this. And then
we have a group chat with kV van Noy and
Deron Harmon and Do was always like that well thought
out guy and he was like, Jay, you miss it though,
And he'd be like, dude, I'm not lying you. I'm
having so much fun. He was like, like he said,
(43:27):
I go to the games for radio. He said, I
walk on the field, I'm dapping guys up, I'm talking
to guys. He said. I went to Germany and London
with the show. He said, like, I'm just having fun.
I didn't know I would have this much fun. So
just seeing that side for him, of I think for
all of us as players, the scariest thing is like
what do I do after football? Like everything sounds good.
(43:48):
Everybody's like being an entrepreneur, start a business, go on TV,
do this be a stay at home dad? But it's like,
what is gonna fulfill me? What is gonna help me
have a new purpose at life? Getting to see just
his joy, flat out joy daily and not in me.
Everything was perfect what he was doing, but the fact
that he had Joey, I was like, all right, there's
(44:09):
hope out there for me.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
You're a Jersey guy, so I imagine I would think
Jersey's gonna be ultimately where the mccordy's are going to
reside at some point in time. Please tell the fans
that this is gonna be your second home. I mean,
I think the people in New England feel like you're
one of us, you know, And it's gonna be really
different for people around here, not seeing number thirty two
on the field and not it just you were You're
(44:34):
always there.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, we're gonna keep always there. We're gonna keep our
house in Foxborough, New England is a huge part of
who I am. Obviously, I grew up in New York
and lived in New Jersey. But since I was twenty
three years old, like I've been a Massachusetts resident, you know,
I'm now thirty five. Like I got I got married
(44:58):
while I was living here. I had all three of
my kids and then we came back up here. So
everything I've kind of done as an adult and a parent,
it was here, and it's what my kids knows what
I know. So this will always be a home for me.
I'm gonna stay connected to all the things I do.
Right now, I'm on the board at BMC. I'm looking
(45:20):
I'm probably planning on joining two more boards that are
based up here. So I obviously be here for all
the Patriots stuff and things like that, but I also
will have the same off the field things continued, our
mccordy Bowl and the tackle sickle cell stuff that we do.
That's why it's important we stay on TV so we
have like people has a reason to still come to
the event, and I'll be able to still like invite
(45:43):
those guys and offer them like some decent stuff for
coming to our event. So I'm excited. You know, Massachusetts
will always be a home for me.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Devin mccorty. Robert Kraft said it today, and he said
it best. He's a real true Patriot. You represented everything
that this organization it deems would be important and you
did it better than anybody else.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Thank you guys for being here today.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Congratulations on an unbelievable career.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Thanks you, guys, Thank you, Thank you for downloading this podcast.
Subscribe on Apple, google Play, and everywhere else you listen.
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Patriots dot com for more news and more podcasts.
It's time for another episode of Pats on the Past
podcast Matt Smith with Paul Brillo, and I think we
just I think we just sort of slipped this one
under the wire light right absolutely the he's merely cold.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
As far as from the past, I was like, dang,
from the past already, some of them a more recent past.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But uh, two's always better than one. Devin and Jason
mccordy are joining with us, joining us. Thank you guys
for being here. Really appreciate it, no problem. And as
we're taping this today, we're coming almost literally after Devin's
retirement ceremony.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How was it? That was awesome? And I know, like
Stacy text me about doing it. Until Stacey I was like, yeah, man,
if if it'll help you, I'll do it. But it
was for me it was awesome because so many people
played a major part in my career. And I think
oftentimes for players, like we always get honored for certain things.
But I think being able to do that press conference
(01:01):
got me to highlight some people who meant a lot
to my career. Obviously you know Bill and missed the Craft,
but also my mom, my wife, other people in this
building like Donna Robin and Miss Nancy, who don't you
know they never really get recognized for how much they
do for us as player. So I just love being
able to do that. You didn't say, brother, I didn't
(01:24):
mean I did mention, you know, but he.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
May have been the m v P of that ceremony.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Talk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Uncle Jason was on it talking. Oh yeah, I mean
uncle Jason was.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I would tell you, Uncle j Ma, but I would
tell anybody like, he's doing a good job on TV,
but if they want to hire him to be a nanny,
he'd be off incredible the more you can do. My
wife was very proud of the man that she has
molded me into, so I know if she's listening and
she's smiling from just.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
So let everybody knows. Three children were there, and I
think it was the youngest one, right, Yeah, Chase, you
were doing some chasing.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
He was active exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And Jason was was tasked with that duty. But just
absolutely adorable kids. Thank you, ridiculously adorable Jason.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
How important was it for you to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
For this very important I've been up since about four
thirty in the morning. Did the show this morning, Good
Morning Football on NFL Network. That goes my shameless plug.
And then after that, me and my middle child, my
son Kit, and he took off a day of school
and he got to come hang out at the studio
and then we jumped in the car and headed up
(02:29):
here for me. And to be honest, I've never been
to a retirement ceremony. I've been on four different teams,
and you typically throughout my career, you don't have guys
that play on one team for this long and mean
this much to one organization. So I didn't really know
what I was walking into and being able to sit
there in the front row and watch highlights from the
(02:49):
very start of Dev's career, him there talking about he
can't pronounce the name of the tight end and how
much I don't remember that when I came. That's a
pretty good fun. That was when I was like, did
I not know Gronkowski? But I'm like, after I got drafted,
I wasn't paying attention. I was hyped. I just remember
(03:09):
some big tight end got drafted, So I'm not even
gonna try to say his last name. And then just
hearing the picture perfect answers he had, like I just
want to come in, I just want to help the team.
And if you interview him now, he says none of
those things. It's these quirky responses. He's trying to make
you laugh. So just seeing his maturation throughout the process
and being able to sit there and hear mister Kraft
(03:31):
and hear Bill speak about him and talk about visiting
him at Rutgers and just the lens that everybody in
this organization sees him through. It was awesome obviously to
be a part of her for three years and witness
it up close, and that thing now on this given
day where you don't always give a chance to highlight
people and give them their flowers. Hearing everybody speak about Dev,
(03:52):
to see his kids go up there, his wife, my
mom was it was really special. I know my older
brother was back at home. He was texing because he
was watching it. And those are the people kind of
my mom and my older brother throughout our entire lives
that have pushed us. And Dev telling that story about
Boston College. He still has a chip on his shoulder
about something. He's like every other NFL player, you find
(04:14):
some type of doubt to motivate you and push you.
Saw I was an honor to be able to be
here and witness it.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
We're gonna get to BC in a second, but I
just one more fall upon the retirement. You were probably
at Sweet Feats back in August or whenever that was Kfeazy,
You remember that one. I remember like, so you're like
sitting there going, oh, yeah, this is great that like
Kevin Fox, these are all great Patriots James White, Wow,
And you sort of said it today like it seemed
(04:39):
like you were blown it. Like their coaching staff's there,
all these players who are working out and everything like that,
that's how important you were to them. Yeah, that's got
to blow you away.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It is crazy because, like James White, sh just happened
before the season. You know. But when I was younger
and I went to I think the first one I
went to was k Fault and I spoke today about
what Feez he meant to me and how he helped
me when I was young. But when I went to his,
I was like, yeah, a lot of people like I
(05:10):
know what he did for me. He's done that for
a long time, fourteen years. When I went to Vince's,
same thing, Ninko, same thing. You just don't you don't
put yourself in that place, because for one, that means
it's the end. So when you're playing, you don't you
don't like to think about the end like that. But
for as many guys that come, like we're at the
end of towards the end of March, like there's no
(05:31):
guys really here, and I think for them just to
take the opportunity to come here and just listen to
me one more time after they had to listen to
me for you know, so long, it's been an honor.
And I think mostly I missed that. I miss the
everyday interaction, like I obviously keep in touch with guys,
but that every day without any effort, getting the opportunity
(05:53):
to talk, laugh and joke. I won't have that anymore,
and that's what I'll miss between the players and the coaches,
of just being able to do that throughout my career.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So you've been obviously such a big part of this
community and this organization for so long. Matt and I
feel like we know a lot of the stuff. We
both left that that that ceremony today and the first
thing we talked about was that story that you guys
just touched on with with Boston College, And I didn't
know any of that stuff was that public. I find
(06:22):
that really interesting. I just from from the perspective of
the two guys that were involved. I'd like you to
tell that story a little bit because I don't think
that's common knowledge. And it was really really interesting that
the school one school would come at one of you.
I just thought that was really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Like Paul and I were soon were walking out of it.
Wouldn't you just because you're a nice person, go okay,
the other twin can't play, but you know what, will
placate him just to make him feel good that we're
here and give them five minutes. But we really want
the other like believe that.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
That's why that was stuff going so honestly, when we
came out, New Hampshire offered both of us, and Kent
State offered him one offer me, BC offered him, wouldn't
offer me, and Rutgers offer him first before they offered me,
but Rutgers decided to invite me on the official visit.
When they came to our house, they sat with both
(07:12):
of us. So for me, it was the fact that
Tom O'Brien and BC came. I love because I don't
so and I'll tell you why it's not well known.
When Tom O'Brien came and they spoke to him, I
wasn't like allowed, like obviously I could have went, but
(07:32):
it was kind of like, well, we don't really need
you in this meeting.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And for me, when Rutgers came and Coach Rizzy and
Coachiano came, they had us both in there, And whether
they really wanted me at that moment, I don't think so,
because they didn't offer me at that moment, but they
still allowed me to be a part of the process
of the recruiting of talking to me, and I thought
like that was like common sense, Like I'm a seventeen
(07:57):
year old kid, Like there's no reason to try to
make me feel worse about not getting a scholarship. The
BC stuck with me for that reason, like you live
in a small house, like I'm sitting on the basically
on the other end of that wall, not hearing it.
But why I never like bashed them with talking about it,
because like I didn't think it would have been fair
for like me, the position I had as a patriot
(08:18):
to talk about the school and whoever the coach would
have been like right now, Coach Hafley's there, and I
like coach Hafley. I like, you know, I like their staff.
I've been there, so I never wanted to like make
it seem like I didn't like them and put negative
press because of all my hard feelings. And I laugh
and joke now I say hard feelings towards Tom Over,
like I get it, you're recruiting guys, You're gonna miss
(08:39):
on guys. But it all came full circle his senior year,
my redshirt junior year, we played NC State in the
bowl game, coach by Tom O'Brien, who left Boston College
shortly after UH we visited. I get the interception that
seals the game. I threw my wolf pack up started
celebrating because other former Patriot not a long time but Taekwon.
(09:02):
Underwood also had a best friend, Rich Gannell, who committed
and played at BC. They were high school teammates, both
stars of the team. BC also wouldn't offer him, and
he blocked a punt that game or picked up a
block punk, So we enjoyed that moment for us kind
of like you were wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So I mean we were talking about this, Devin. Everybody
needs a little something to stre them on. Not everybody's
a five star recruit. Not everybody is, you know, a
parade All American or whatever, and you might need something
to motivate you. The fact that this guy's in your
house and he's not choosing to speak with you as
an eighteen year old kid. You can take that with
(09:42):
you to your twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, and
that fire keeps burning.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I mean, and then then you get drafted to
the Patriots. So now it's like, man, the school that's
right in the backyard, Like, how cool would it have been?
Because I think there is a chance that we both
got offered by BC, that you know, if we came
on a visit to together instead of just him coming
on his visit, there's a chance that we might have
liked And I remember thinking that when I got drafted
like Dann, I'd have probably been pretty cool. Like if
(10:08):
I would have went to BC and got drafted as
like a first round or to the New England Patriots,
like that would have been because I think about all
the kids now that come out of BC, and so
many articles get written like, man, the Patriot should signed him,
or the Patriot should draft him from BC. But I
mean again, it's a part of the story that at
the time I was really angry about. But it's a
part of the reason I'm here today as well, So
(10:30):
you gotta enjoy it. And I think on top of that,
it doesn't just stop with BC. Like Dev had a
chip on the shoulder even when it came to Rutgers,
and I remember, like he said, I got offered first,
and then he got offered. When we went our official
visit and we had a high school teammate that was
already at Rutgers, Ron Girault, who coach Ciano, went to
and was like, Hey, what's the difference between these two,
because we've already offered Jason and we're still recruiting Death.
(10:54):
He was like, they're the same player. Devin just got
hurt their senior year, so Jason seems like he had
the better year that year. And that's when Rutgers finally
decided to offer Dev. So even once Dev got drafted,
he still had like this chip on his shoulder life.
I always remind you want me, yeah him, you offered
me just to get my brother, and I got here
(11:14):
and I had to prove to you guys that I
was just as good so, like I said, he's he's
always had that chip and he plays with it. And
I think kind of credit Tom O'Brien because this guy's
played thirteen years at an extremely high level.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I mean, that was one of the things that we
were talking about. I was like, I mean, they're they're twins.
They both played for a long time in the National
Football League and had a lot of success. How different
could they have been as seventeen eighteen year old players?
And that makes sense that you got you got banged
up because you had the red shirt and Jason you didn't.
That's why you would drafted first, right you played the
year before, right?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, if only, if only uh, Robert Craft and Bill
Belichick would have drafted, maybe I would have had three.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Crazy think about it. But I mean, you know, and
I don't. I guess you don't harbor any kind of illa.
Well not at all, no, I know, but like it's
not unusual. You're human to think about that, right.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, for sure. And I think that's the beauty about
each and every guy that has a career or whatever
your journey is, because it's unique to just you. And
I think my journey helped dev along the way because
my rookie year in the league. I go to the
Tennessee Titans under Jeff Fisher and he gets drafted a
year later under Bill Belichick and the Patriots, and the
(12:22):
way they ran their two organizations couldn't be any more different.
So Dev senior year, the entire time, I'm telling them
this is what the NFL is like, this is how
we do things, this, that, and the third and then
the next year he's like, you lied to me. The
NFL is nothing like what you just described. And once
he got here, I was like, I definitely get it.
And then obviously for our paths to be able to
(12:43):
come together nine years later, we both when I got
a chance to come to New England, I think it
made it that much better that my journey kind of
went aroundabout way to lead us back to each other.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So Dev, I'll I'll tie the knot on the Tom
O'Briant thing for you. I had a chance, you know,
from my high school ever high school here in Massachusetts,
I spoke at our varsity club banquets, as you know,
one of the award guys for alumni, and Tom O'Brien
was one of the speakers that night too, and it's
kind of a low key, you know, it's not an
overly formal event. So this sometimes you're talking and people
(13:17):
are still eating and the clanking of the glasses, like
you don't have everybody's attention. Tom O'Brien didn't like that.
Tom O'Brien was very upset. He's like finger pointing people
and telling people to stop talking as he's talking. I
was like, I was like, Wow, what a hard ass.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So that's like Tijan Tom O'Brien, he's not He's welcome
back and there forgetting. Althoughways had a lot of every
high school players over the years.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So you got to respect that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You haven't had a long to really think about it
because you just made this decision. If you look back
at the thirteen years, and I'm going to put the
pressure on you, is there you know the highlight of
your career is it the eighteen season and how that
season ended, being able to play with your brother and
to cap it off with the Super Bowl championship.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, no doubt. If I had to pick one season,
it would be that season, not only because we won
another championship and it was with him, but it was
the way that season was like him at the end
of training camp, everyone wondering if he's gonna get cut
or make the team. And then you know, we beat Houston.
Week one, we go and get absolutely destroyed by Jacksonville
(14:22):
on the road in Jacksonville. Then go on the road
to Detroit Sunday night football, get destroyed again, win some games,
Miami miracle. Then you know, I think we kind of, yeah,
we kind of reset after the Miami Miracles, like we
need to go win this game in Pittsburgh. We go
down to Pittsburgh and lose again, play a good game
and lose chance to win that win the division that week,
(14:44):
and then it kind of turned into like, oh damn,
like we just lost two games in December, like that's
not what we do here. And I still vividly remember
Bill coming in and we had Jets and Bills imbo
and he comes in, he we got nothing but playoff
games left. If we do we're supposed to do, everything
will work out. And sure enough, we go win the
(15:06):
two games, Houston loses, We end up with a buy
in the first round to two seed, and then you know,
we go to Kansas City. We beat Kansas City on
the road first time. I think since it was four
maybe that the team had won on the road in
the AFC Championship Game. And then we go and have
a Super Bowl that was total opposite of the year before.
(15:28):
We couldn't stop it. We couldn't stop Philly at all
as a defense the year before. So to go have
that performance, I always look at that year was like
the most up and downs. But I was an older player.
I was like even more of a veteran then, because
there were no other guys that count on, Like there
were no Vincent and Gerard, Like I didn't have those
guys on defense. So to be able to have that
(15:51):
team and you know, myself high being like those guys
out were here for a long period of time leading
that group was a lot of fun. Man. And then
this guy made the story just so much better because
his energy and everyone wanted to give him so much
credit of like, man, you deserve this your finally, and
how he just kept telling people like why do I
(16:12):
deserve this more than anybody else? Like, yeah, I worked hard,
but like there's a ton of guys in the NFL
that worked hard. So I thought we had a great
mix of guys like him Danny Shelton, like they went
oh sixteen the year before, like they were back they
were on our team about to play in a super
Bowl game after going oh in sixteen. So I just
thought we had so many cool storylines from individuals, but
(16:33):
ultimately like that team, uh, to me, was just a
great story.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I can only imagine what your mom thinks when she
sees the video at the end of the Kansas City game,
because when I look at it, even we all stop,
I mean, I still get almost choked up about it
when I see it, like, because it's surreal and here's
two kids who probably did that in your backyard or
on the playground at school and everything, and it happened.
(16:58):
And I know you got to close the deal because
it would have shocked if we have done all that right, right,
But how amazing was that moment?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Oh, it was awesome and you said we did it.
Growing up, I can remember getting ready for Sunday Pop
Warner games and me and Dev would go outside on
the pavement and start throwing the ball and we'd go
over all of our plays that we were going to
run later on in the game, just to prepare ourselves.
And now from that moment waking up Sunday morning to
now fast forwarding years later. Now we're waking up on
(17:29):
a Sunday morning and we're walking into a stadium getting
ready to play in the Super Bowl that he's done.
This is his fifth time being in this game. And
I think the best moment wasn't on the field after
the game. It was in the locker room as we're
going and we're passing around THEFT Championship trophy and now
we're talking about going to the game. And for me,
(17:50):
it was so surreal. And I said it when I
was holding the trophy. This is the first time I
get to go to the game on my own accord,
and I'm not hitting Dev up to figure out the
logistics and taking care of the family, but I'm actually
getting invited to the game. So for me, it was
truly special. Dev knows the Super Bowl in Houston. I
never know the numbers the Super Bowl in Houston. I
(18:10):
wasn't fifty fifty one, yet they're all the same to
me other than fifty three.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Try having to write about it, Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Ever, I can only imagine the hardship these guys go
through having to write about Super.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Bowl and that's the proper spot, oh tough life.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So it was just it was remarkable and I think
to be able to go through it all and obviously
have him alongside me, but I just remember being in
that locker room like I'm finally getting a chance to go.
And as I was saying, the Super Bowl in Houston,
I remember leading up to when they won that AFC
Championship game, I remember saying to my wife, I'm not
going to the super Bowl this year. It was just
(18:47):
like at that point, it wasn't jealousy, but there was
some envy within it of we're both in the same
sport each and every year. I work my ass off
all off season, to the point where me and Dev
would be training sometimes and he'd be like to like,
there's no need to do this, Like this isn't this
isn't the reason you're not getting there. You're just killing
yourself and just trying so hard. Because I was on
(19:10):
the field in Arizona when he won that game and
I got a chance to witness it as his twin brother,
and it was awesome, and I was just like, I
want to take this back to Tennessee and I want
to get to this game. I remember when he made
it to the Super Bowl, was like, I'm not I'm
not going to the game.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Like was he busting your balls or was he being
cheeriosh about this? No, he was as far as working
like why are you working so hard? It's not gonna
happen fit.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
And I don't say that from the standpoint because I mean,
anybody that's been around this guy, he's one of the
hardest working guys in this sport. And he was saying
it to me of just like there's a certain level
where it's like are you working harder or working smart?
It was just like this isn't necessary to continue to
approve and get better. So I remember then it was
probably like the Monday of the Super Bowl and I
said to my wife, I was like, ah, I gotta go.
(19:51):
And we had just had a son, and I ended
up taking my daughter with me, who was I think
three at the time, and flying out to Houston. As
much as I kind of was going through stuff in
my own head of wanting to be in that game,
I was like, I can't miss this. This is too important.
And I had a blast down at the game, and
as always, I hosted the family, taking them out to eat,
handling tickets and all of those other things so Dev
(20:13):
could focus on the game. So it was a long
journey in a long process. So to finally get to
that Super Bowl in twenty eighteen, it was just it
was so surreal awesome.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
The Kansas City game to me, you know, just we
don't necessarily talk a lot about the memories of the
actual games because everybody knows the highlights, but that game
to me stood out. I mean, I've been here over
twenty years. That to me still is my favorite game
just to have watched. Yeah, just the amount of tension
in that second half that you guys were playing through
(20:44):
on both sides of the ball. You shut them down
completely for one half and now we're holding on for
deal life rolling in the second half.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
And forty three game earlier in the season, right, I
remember sitting on the bench at the end of that game.
We end up winning forty forty three. Steve kicks the
kick and we win the game, and we're sitting there
as a defense and Dron Harmon, Devin mccordy, Patrick Chung Gilmore,
John Jones just sitting on the bench and everybody has
like this look on their face because we just gave
(21:13):
up forty points. I'm like, what the hell is wrong
with y'all? We just won the game. I don't care
if we gave up sixty. You know how many of
these games I've been a part of where like the
offense getst the ball and you're just like, we have
no shot. We actually went down and won the game,
and I remember that we laughed about that moment after
because like he kind of started off with me, Danny Shelton,
Josh Gordon, we were all on that team. I didn't
win a game the year before, and not only that,
(21:35):
I was on a Titans team that was two and fourteen.
That was three and thirteen. So my perspective on what
it meant to win a game and how hard it
was was totally different to a lot of the guys
that have been around here. So you take that game
and then you fast forward to the playoff game and
Bill kind of hit on all the x's and os
of how we were able to win that game. And
I think that's what was cool, because I think in
twenty eighteen, our secondary became a weapon for us from
(21:58):
the standpoint of we didn't need a lot of direct
rules from the coaching staff on how we want to
do things, like he said, like stopping Tyreek Hill turned
into me and John Jones talking about where he lined up,
how I thought he should play, how he thought, and
like we literally would watch film and be like, oh,
I think you should be here. They us do this
(22:18):
all right, if they bring hardman in and they put
them both here, we're gonna do this. And that continue
from twenty eighteen nineteen, Like anytime we played this team,
we would have like these rules and things we would
do that. If you ask the coaching staff, they'd be like, yeah,
I think they're playing like this because but it was
really just our unit that was dictating and doing things
like that. So that was also a cool moment because
(22:41):
we had grown as a group. You know, Jay Jones
got here in sixteen, Stephan seventeen, myself, Do and Chung
had been here playing together since all of us playing
a lot since twenty fourteen. So adding him in eighteen
and I felt like because he was my twin brother,
like it didn't feel like a new guy. And then
(23:01):
e Rowe was here. We had a group that had
now had like two or three years playing together. Added
a young guy like J. C. Jackson was just a
straight out playmaker. We were able to do things in
that secondary. That for me was the first time that
wasn't like mandated by Bill. It was kind of like
if you come to the sideline and something looks wrong
you but I have a good reason why you did it.
(23:23):
And he said I remember him saying to me, like,
I want you to do what you thinks best, because
nine out of ten times I'm going to agree with
what you want to do, so I'd rather just go
do it on the field. And like since then it
was just like, all right, we have some ownership of
how we want to do certain things. Let's just go
do it.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So that's interesting perspective right there, because I think the fan,
the neophyight, the outsider. I look at fourteen, okay, and
so I get seduced maybe by Revis Okay, Browner, Okay,
that was good. You guys were younger and everything like that.
But maybe you didn't have the experience in fourteen. Maybe
you guys are just going off of tremendous ability, great numbers.
(24:04):
Chandler was on that team, so you know have the
past rush to go with it a little bit as well.
But now you've got the experience that you gained from
all those different battles that you went through so that
you can do the things which more osmosis, like I
know what we're doing here, like Tom says all the time,
I know the answer to the test before you give
it to me. So is that maybe the difference between
that fourteen secondary and the eighteen.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Sent definitely for me. Now, that fourteen secondary was good,
like you said me Chung Deron, but from a corner
debt wise, like Malcolm Butler was our sixth corner right,
like we had Alfonso Dinner, Kyle Arrington, Logan, Ryan Reeves Brown,
We had so many good players. But I was like
that was year five for me. So yeah, I was
(24:46):
like I was understanding how to play the game. I
was playing probably some of my better football in my career.
But when you talk about being a leader and like
running things from a team standpoint, Mayo and Vince did that.
Like I controlled where we need to line up in
the secondary, what we needed to do from what coach
said the game plan was, I was gonna make sure
we got to execute the game plan. The difference in
(25:09):
eighteen was this is the game plan. But this is
how we're gonna win the game. Yeah, stick to the
game plan, but also if you need to change some
things and do things differently, go like, don't worry about
what any coach is gonna say. It was like, we
trust you just as much as we trust a coach
telling you to do something. So if you see it,
go do it. And in fourteen I didn't have that
(25:30):
kind of confidence yet to do that. And you know,
I think that's what made eighteen special for me.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Ownership, Yes, you would ownership at eighteen, and that's the difference.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, Like in fourteen, it was like we were all good,
Like those guys came here because they were good, and
I saw it as that, like, man, I just want
those guys to feel welcome, whereas in eighteen I felt
more like, all right, those guys are all ready to go,
but like I gotta be the captain of this. I
gotta help these guys understand how we want to play.
And it wasn't a like I'm a top of the
(26:00):
mountain better than you, but it was like, hey, if
I if I can lead this, and then everybody else
will fill in and do to their roles. Like no
one challenged me more in our room, in our secondary
room than him. And it wasn't like we were about to
break out in fistfight. It was like, now I'll tell
you why I'm right, and I'll tell you why you're wrong,
and we go back and forth and then we go
in the locker room and laugh about it because we
(26:21):
challenge each other that way. And I think that's what
made that team so special because we were all a
lot of us were around the same age. Then we
had a couple of young guys, like it was just
a great mess of guys that I thought came together
to build something that wasn't established in the beginning, Like fourteen.
When those guys came, it was like you better, you
better win the Super Bowl. Like you just put two
(26:42):
Pro Bowl players from another team on your team, Revas
and Browner, Like you need to go win. So it
was a little different, but it was I mean, it
was still so much fun. That's my second thing was
it was my first ever win, so that was definitely
special too.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
When did you recognize a moment you talked about when
you came in guys like Kevin Falk and Vincent those
guys and you mentioned Vincent Gerard sort of ran that too.
Did you recognize the moment that you turned into that guy?
Did you sort of understand it?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Because they were good that transition, they were gone. And
I keep saying that, like everyone talks about the future
of this team from a leadership standpoint, and I've told
I've told Doug that, I've told bit not as much
because Ben already kind of does that, but I've told
some of the younger players. I was like, you're gonna
look around and the guys that you saw doing things
(27:34):
will be gone. So that means the only other person
that can do it is you, or you let somebody
that doesn't understand or see what you've you've seen and
how it's supposed to be done. You let them take over,
I said, But then you have to think about do
you want to live in a world where because I
don't want to do what I let somebody else do,
and I let them do it wrong. So for me,
(27:54):
twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen really is like the mesh
of some newer guys. But it was like me and
High Hi had been here since twenty twelve. Me since
twenty ten, I thought had to be more vocal and
Hi had to take a little time to fall into
his Like if you ever get to know hw, he
(28:14):
like rebels against everything that he knows. He is like
he never wanted to be a captain, even though he
was like the ultimate captain, got voted all the time.
But I thought we all kind of looked up and
everyone filled a role like Chung was never super vocal,
but Chung was a leader in his way of being tough,
being tough and filling every role on the defense, safety, linebacker,
(28:36):
corner like he did everything. So I always look back,
you know, between myself, Chung and High of really deciding like,
all right, we gotta be the next wave of leaders
of this group. I can remember Mao saying it where
he was coming back in the building and he said
he'd come back and he was just like, who the
hell is this mccordy, Like dev never spoke this much
(28:58):
when I was on the team, and I think that
speaks what he's saying. You didn't have to because there
was a guy doing that. I think now he's moving on,
guys will definitely speak up more because anybody that's played
with death he's one of the loudest people in the building.
Never shuts up. So some guys are happy they finally
can be heard.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
But we like that, right, They like the guys are talking.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
He's right, we do, and so do the fans, And
so the fans now see as side of Devin mccordy.
He's the guy in the huddle every single week. He's
very vocal. He's something very important and generally pretty poignant
to say at that point in time. But that can
be overrated. And I think Bill I you sort of
mentioned that a little bit today. You know, world's filled
with big mouse. You know, it's a kind of leadership
(29:38):
that might get you. We don't know what you're doing
behind the scenes. It's picking a guy up, like you're
saying something's going wrong with their family, you know, or
maybe he's got, you know, something in their personal life.
That's the kind of leadership. What those are the guys
that you probably gravitate to, Like this guy's got my
back and I don't need to hear all the you know,
Ray Ross Siskumba nice, get me wrong and love this stuff,
(30:01):
But it's the other stuff that really really shows you
who the real leaders are. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Oh? Just as an example throughout my entire career. I
gave the same pregame speech that Dev did every single game,
whether I was in Tennessee, whether I was in Cleveland,
did it once I left here in New England, and
I did it in Miami as well. And I would
argue that I gave a better pregame speech every single
Sunday than Devin mccordy. But we didn't win games. No
(30:26):
one cares what you're saying when you don't win games.
And I could be a great leader, give a great
pregame speech, team could just not be as talented as
a team across from us, and we don't win the game,
and no one is gonna say, like, Wow, he's a
great leader. Did you hear the pregame speech he made
before the game. But when you go out there and
you hear the words that Dev says before the Super
(30:46):
Bowl fifty three and he talks about iron and shopping
and iron and picking up your brother, and then you
go out there and win the game. And then you
have Coach Belichick after the game and you ask him
about this guy that you perceive as a leader because
what he's saying before the game, and you hear Coach
Belichick talk about well, what he does during the course
of the week. Or you hear Steve Belichick talk about
the fact that he wears the green dot and he's
(31:07):
controlling with the defense here's from the coaching staff. Or
you hear Robert Kraft talk about the work that he
does in the community for the past thirteen years of
his career, or you hear one of his teammates talk about, Hey,
in this moment in the game, we were feeling this,
or something happened, like in the Super Bowl where we
don't get to a play. He yells over to me, Jade,
A're gonna come back to that play. Make sure you're
ready for it. That's when it all comes full circling.
(31:29):
You're like, Wow, it's not the moment before the game
where he yells and he screams and the veins popping
out of his forehead. It's all the six different touch
points that everybody's saying about him that makes him pat
the Patriot, the ultimate team leader. And I think with him,
he just had the total package. And the next group
of leaders on this young team may come in different
forms of fashion, and maybe the vocal guy and then
(31:51):
the behind the scenes guy. I don't know. If you
replace a Devin mccordy with one single leader.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I can only imagine that you put your mother through
growing up because I barely know you.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Don't see how competitive you are. Who's drinking water fastest,
who's good whatever? You guys are uber competitive with each other.
It's legit when you see what happens for him today
and that you were able to be a part of it.
You know, and all the bs aside about I'm better
than you, I'm gonna make more money than you and TV. No,
I'm gonna make more money than you and TV. How
proud of you were to be able to say, wow,
(32:24):
one team thirteen years, look at what all you accomplished,
and it must make you feel great as a brother.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, he doubled my salary in the NFL, so I
have to make more on TV. But it's so special
it's hard to put it into words. The fact that
I can walk in this building and shake hands with
so many people and laughing joke. Bill doesn't make that
trade or go and get me if Devn's not here.
(32:51):
I truly believe that I had a good career before
I got here. I'm on TV because of the three
years that I spent here in the New England Patriots.
Half the time when I'm out of somebody recognizes me.
They think I played for the Patriots for ten plus years,
and they asked me how many rings did I win
while I was here, because they have no idea that
Dev was the one here for thirteen years and I
(33:13):
was just here as a pit stop along my career.
So when you talk about how proud I am, I'm
extremely proud to be able to not only watch Dev
but to be a witness of not only his playing
career but his entire life. When I got here, it
was one thing to learn about who he was in
the building and the way everybody perceived him. And he's
right because in the meeting rooms, no one felt like
(33:34):
they could say he was wrong about something. I had
no problem saying it. But beyond just the ex's and o's.
On Tuesdays, I would be waking up at seven am
on our off day because we'd be driving into Boston
to do something social justice related or something community related
that he was leading the charge on. And those were
the things that get spoken about, but they sometimes can't
(33:55):
go unmentioned. And he was a catalyst behind a lot
of things done off the field as well, So for
me it was special to watch him up there today
during his retirement ceremony. But like you said, to be
in this building for three years, to witness winning the
Super Bowl our first year till my last year here,
his first time not making the playoffs, and that spectrum
(34:18):
and the scale of those things, and we laughed about
it that twenty twenty season because it was chaos. Obviously,
that was COVID. Tom had just left. Cam came in
and I remember the year we won the super Bowl.
It was the most games he had lost in the season.
It was five games. It was the most I had
ever won. It was double digits for the first time
(34:38):
in my career. I he did, He definitely did. And
then I won him a super Bowl that Craft mentioned,
So I gotta make sure I send that check to
Craft for that. And I remember laughing with him at
the end of that season because in New England a
lot of people don't realize it, but even throughout losing seasons,
there's moments of laughter, there's moments of joy. You find
(35:00):
a way to get through the adversity and it builds
the relationships amongst the guys and I remember saying to
Dev at the end of that season, I told you,
losing sucks, but it's not that bad because as we
went through that season and he didn't make the playoffs,
he was going through it and I was happy to
be here to be able to kind of pick him
up and pick the other guys up, like yo, we
just got to keep swinging and those three years were awesome.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
So Jason, I want to give you an opportunity to
talk about that play too that Robert mentioned at the ceremony.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Because he's only talked about it fifty.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Eleven, but he's never talked about it here in the
Patriots studio. So I want to give you an opportunity
of what you saw, what you remember, you know, standing,
you know, being in the in the press box one
hundred miles up. It Just Bringdon Cooks's I'll taking that
all by himself.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah. So it was a beautiful Sunday evening that that
just to lead up to that game, and Dev kind
of alluded to it when he said in twenty eighteen
he realized the secondary could be used as a weapon,
and more specific, corner back room had built a bond
and I think had reached a certain level. I remember
our Corners coach Josh Boyer, after the bye week, we
(36:06):
were a meeting and he said, we went through a
self scout and we realized one of the strengths of
our defense is we can cover anybody on the field,
he says, So I'm just letting you guys know, stretch,
get your hamstrings ready, whatever you need to do. But
we're playing man and man for the rest of the season,
press and we're gonna cover everybody. And it was like okay.
So from that point on, all the way up until
the AFC Championship game, myself, Stefan Gilmour, j C. Jackson,
(36:31):
Jonathan Jones, we played man and man against everybody, and
we all four of us played in whatever form or
fashion had happened. And we get to that week of
that Super Bowl, and I can remember before that game,
Josh Reynolds, Brandon Cooks, Robert Woods, all of them talked
about if they play man, if they played the way
they've been playing, like, we're gonna get at them. And
(36:51):
they had no reason not to think we were gonna
play man. And when you talk, they definitely thought we
were gonna play man. He still I mean the next
year he figured it out when we went to La
But that's a story for another day. So in that
game and that play, we're playing Cover four, and anybody
that's watched kind of the micd up portion of it,
that play happened earlier in the game where Brandon Cooks
(37:14):
runs a post on the front side and we drop
them and I think, no, Gilmour runs with him, but
I don't drop off to help him. And Gilmour is
looking at that play like there's a lot of space
back here for Cooks to run away from him. And
we're playing Cover four and there's a post and over
from the other side, and when we get on the sideline,
something that had become a really good habit for us
is obviously the coaches would go over with the little
(37:37):
blue Microsoft surface that everybody has seen Tom slam before,
Bill Slamm before. We'd sit down and we'd go over
those things, and as players, we didn't get it. And
we talk about it, and Dev's holding the surface on
the sideline and he's like Jay Jay and he shows
the play. If they're gonna come back to this play,
you have to make sure you drop off and you
come back. I'm like I know, I know, I saw
(37:58):
the play. I talked to Steph after I get it,
but that was the communication necessary. Everybody talks about halftime adjustments.
A lot of those adjustments go.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
On on the sign series right.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
After the play series by series, and we make that
adjustment and then the play comes up and Dev always
says it, I'm probably two steps late in my recognition
to be able to get there. And on the front
side between Dev Gilmore and I think Killy dropped it.
Killy dropped the route. The rule that we said after
that game is enough. We never say who was supposed
(38:29):
to telling. So Brandon Cooks is wide open and I
recognized it, probably two seconds too later, and probably two
seconds earlier. He probably doesn't throw the ball, or maybe
I do intercept it, but who knows. But either way,
was able to get back there and make that play,
and that was special for me to make that play.
Had another pass breakup. Man, it was so important to
(38:49):
me to play good in that game because it took
ten years just to get to the playoffs, So being
able to get to a super Bowl, I firmly believe
when I got in that game, like this is the
only super Bowl I'm playing right, there's not gonna be another.
I can remember coming home and obviously here in New
England title Town Boss and everybody be like we got
(39:10):
to get seven. I'd be like seven, Hell no, I'm
deid with one. I don't know. I don't need a
second championship. So it was it was so important to
me to play well in that game, So to have
a play that everybody still talks about or gets mentioned
in very proud of. And I've gotten a chance to
be around Cooks quite a bit. And it's the quote,
like with Kobe Bryance, I hate it had to be
(39:30):
Cooks because he seems like a really good guy, But
I hate it had to be be Cooks because he's
loved in every single building that he's ever been in.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Interesting, we're talking with Jason and Devin mccordy, and as
we kind of wrap things up here a little bit,
as we just were listening to Jason Jason's the TV
Star and again talking about how competitive you are. You
probably don't have anything signed yet, but my guess is
there's a line outside the door.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I hope. So I've been on a couple of interviews,
so you've had some auditions, I'm waiting for them to
slide the offer sheet across the table, like how does
that look to you? But now it's been a lot
of fun, I think, And I think that's what kind
of got led me to even retirement, to being able
to do some of those things during the bye week
and then after the season of like actually enjoying it
(40:13):
like that. Like I talked about earlier, I didn't used
to enjoy watching football because I would watch football and
get angry about maybe I missed the play or us
not playing in the playoffs but doing that and you're
now you got segments that you're talking about, so you
gotta watch the film. You're breaking it down again. I
was enjoying just the game of football at its core.
(40:36):
Didn't matter that I was watching Buffalo and Cincinnati are
about to play like that, didn't matter that, you know,
we should have been both we had a chance to
beat both of them. At the end of the year,
I kind of had that out of my mind and
I started talking about the strengths and what we talked
about playing them, and I was like, oh, I kind
of like this, like this is fun. I do this
during the season. This is how I break down the
(40:58):
game and look at the game to talk about it
and then talk about it with guys like Kurt Warner.
A couple of times, Michael Irvin coach Kauer like sitting
in a CBS production meeting and talking to Coach Cower
about fire zones and how to cover it and how
he talked to Bill about it. I'm like, so I
got coach boy, Bill Belichick, and I'm sitting here with
(41:18):
Bill Cower and We're talking about fire three defense. Like
I was like, when would that ever happen? And that's
when I knew. I was like, I think I'll enjoy
doing this and I might be able to get paid
for exactly right.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
And so, Jason, I'm sure you'd been able to help
him a little bit. You know, like you, what's your
brother's lifestyle doing it like he's on early in the morning.
You've done drivetime morning radio and being on with guys
at six o'clock in the morning, and so you know
how hard that could be.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It might not all be just it's not all glitz
and glamour exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Yeah, But do you get enough of advice baby from
Jason where he can give you some hey, don't do
this because this stinks.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
But you know, and if you.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Can do that, and do you have a preference Devin studio?
Would you ever want to do games? Has anybody approached
you about, you know, doing color or do you like
being in the studio.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
It's not just advice that I give him. I gave him.
I gave him a week audition on the show too.
I booked him. He didn't get me paid. It's easy
to book somebody for free. As I also had a
decision over my head, so you know, they were like,
all right, if he comes, maybe he'll decide if he's
going to retire or not. That seems to be pretty
(42:24):
good news for seven Totten and go up on the show.
It helps. But I would say, obviously the advice, and
so far I've done the studio analyst stuff the most.
So if you actually when I'm comfortable, it would be
that what I'd be willing to do everything like a
college studio analyst, uh, games, like anything, because I want
to just try it all. But the biggest thing that
(42:45):
I got from him was his joy. This past season,
there were times when we jump on FaceTime and we
would talk about a team in their offense because he
was gonna call a game on the radio, and he
was like, what do you what do you see when
you watch this team play? Or what did y'all What
did Bill talk about when y'all played against the Jets?
For their defense and what their defense does well, So
(43:07):
little things like that. When I would talk to him,
I'll be like, man, he's really enjoying this. And then
we have a group chat with kV van Noy and
Deron Harmon and Do was always like that well thought
out guy and he was like, Jay, you miss it though,
And he'd be like, dude, I'm not lying you. I'm
having so much fun. He was like, like he said,
(43:27):
I go to the games for radio. He said, I
walk on the field, I'm dapping guys up, I'm talking
to guys. He said. I went to Germany and London
with the show. He said, like, I'm just having fun.
I didn't know I would have this much fun. So
just seeing that side for him, of I think for
all of us as players, the scariest thing is like
what do I do after football? Like everything sounds good.
(43:48):
Everybody's like being an entrepreneur, start a business, go on TV,
do this be a stay at home dad? But it's like,
what is gonna fulfill me? What is gonna help me
have a new purpose at life? Getting to see just
his joy, flat out joy daily and not in me.
Everything was perfect what he was doing, but the fact
that he had Joey, I was like, all right, there's
(44:09):
hope out there for me.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
You're a Jersey guy, so I imagine I would think
Jersey's gonna be ultimately where the mccordy's are going to
reside at some point in time. Please tell the fans
that this is gonna be your second home. I mean,
I think the people in New England feel like you're
one of us, you know, And it's gonna be really
different for people around here, not seeing number thirty two
on the field and not it just you were You're
(44:34):
always there.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, we're gonna keep always there. We're gonna keep our
house in Foxborough, New England is a huge part of
who I am. Obviously, I grew up in New York
and lived in New Jersey. But since I was twenty
three years old, like I've been a Massachusetts resident, you know,
I'm now thirty five. Like I got I got married
(44:58):
while I was living here. I had all three of
my kids and then we came back up here. So
everything I've kind of done as an adult and a parent,
it was here, and it's what my kids knows what
I know. So this will always be a home for me.
I'm gonna stay connected to all the things I do.
Right now, I'm on the board at BMC. I'm looking
(45:20):
I'm probably planning on joining two more boards that are
based up here. So I obviously be here for all
the Patriots stuff and things like that, but I also
will have the same off the field things continued, our
mccordy Bowl and the tackle sickle cell stuff that we do.
That's why it's important we stay on TV so we
have like people has a reason to still come to
the event, and I'll be able to still like invite
(45:43):
those guys and offer them like some decent stuff for
coming to our event. So I'm excited. You know, Massachusetts
will always be a home for me.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Devin mccorty. Robert Kraft said it today, and he said
it best. He's a real true Patriot. You represented everything
that this organization it deems would be important and you
did it better than anybody else.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Thank you guys for being here today.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Congratulations on an unbelievable career.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Thanks you, guys, Thank you, Thank you for downloading this podcast.
Subscribe on Apple, google Play, and everywhere else you listen.
Like the show, Please rate and review us. Listener comments
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