Devin McCourty Meets With the Media, 6/5/18

Devin McCourty had an interesting offseason, and it didn’t have anything to do with all the negative stuff being slung around. McCourty watched in delight as the Patriots traded for his twin brother, Jason, to join the defensive backfield as most likely a starting cornerback. Devin didn’t have much to say about his brother today, but he did have some interesting questions asked of him during his media availability.

PATRIOTS DEFENSIVE BACK DEVIN MCCOURTY

MEDIA AVAILABILITY

June 5, 2018

Q: Does it take on a different feel collectively when everybody is out there now?

DM: No. Honestly it doesn’t. We come out here and play. X’s and O-wise, yeah. You put Gronk [Rob Gronkowski] out there, defensively we kind of want to know where he’s at. Then with Tom [Brady] out there you know he’s making right plays. He’s always tough to go against defensively but maybe because I’ve been here for so long we’re used to that. But it was a good day getting out here, guys competing and just continuing from what we’ve already started kind of with OTAs.

Q: With Tom Brady’s voice and Rob Gronkowski’s presence, is that something you can feel as a difference on the field?

DM: Maybe for the offense. Like I said, defensively we want to know where Gronk is. We always talk about that. A lot of the older guys we kind of try to think how Tom thinks but it doesn’t work. We see that throughout the league. But other than that, no. We went over our same install, came out here, same goal. It doesn’t change.

Q: You’ve been vocal before on the anthem protests. I’m curious of your thoughts on President Trump disinviting the Eagles when he says it was because they were taking a knee.

DM: It’s hard because I don’t know exactly what the situation was. I think I read something that some guys are going, some weren’t. So I don’t want to comment like not fully knowing it. But we’re not surprised, are we?

Q: Legalized sports betting is going to be coming down the road –

DM: Can I get rich off it?

Q: Is that something that the NFL Players Association has had any discussions about and how you’ll handle it when it arrives?

DM: I think we should keep that in house, right? I don’t know. That’s a tricky one. I mean we’ll figure it out I’m sure.

Q: How did Tom Brady look?

DM: Is this like a throwback to the playoffs? I can only say that once. We’re kind of on opposite teams right now so he looked bad.

Q: He obviously looked horrible and out of shape, right?

DM: Yeah. Not as good looking as before.

Q: Does it give a full practice feel when everybody is here?

DM: No, I mean because we still were doing the same situations, we were in the red area, we were in the field. Just got to know 87 is out there, know where he’s at defensively. But I wouldn’t say without those guys we can’t play football. You know what I mean? Obviously they’re really good players so it’s always a difference having them out there to compete against, but I think as a team and how we practice that doesn’t change.

Q: Do you think the anthem protests are going to be a continuation throughout the season where guys are going to do what they need to do to show how they feel?

DM: I think it’ll be talked about and stuff all year. Like how could it not? I think every week you guys will probably be up in the press box with binoculars counting how many guys are on the field. I think that’s just how it’s going to be, like you’re going to try to pay attention to it. Everyone is going to pay attention to it every week.

Q: How does your place of work turn into just your place of work and not this political kind of show?

DM: I think it’s like that for everyone. I think no matter what you live in this country so you’re going to have some opinions, some stance on it. I think it varies though across the board what you decide to do. Like you could decide to write about it and talk about it or you don’t. So I think that varies for each person.

Transcripts are provided by the Patriots media relations department as a courtesy to the media