Quotes from Devin McCourty

As we've gotten older, we've used resistance bands more and more.

There's been a lot of legends that I've gotten the opportunity to play against, some to play with. Those guys, sometimes they retire or different things, younger guys come up, they start over them.

You know, I think when I was young, I was just always worried about how I was going to fit in, what I needed to do to be better. I think now, as you get older, you kind of think more as a team concept of, 'How do I get everyone on the same page?'

As you get later into the season, you always have to be prepared for if a guy is up or down, and that's something we talk about constantly.

So much of my development as a football player and as a man has been here in New England, and it's an honor to hopefully be able to finish my career here and be a Patriot for life.

When I think about the Patriot Way, I think about a team.

I always think if you're blessed and you've got great opportunities for some reason, you really should go and try to pass that blessing on to other people and go on and try to give them opportunities they wouldn't have and try to be that blessing.

I think as an away team, if you like that type of atmosphere where everybody's against you, you know it's going to be just you and your guys there for three hours trying to get a win. When you can get a win in that environment, I think it builds great character.

The funny thing is everybody wants to win a Super Bowl, and it really doesn't change anything in your daily life.

I don't think you ever come into the season and talk, 'Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl.' It's about improving and winning games along the way as you improve.

I think the NFL season starts with the first three or four games and all the predictions come out. You're either great on offense, bad on defense, great on defense, bad on offense. You're either going to have a Super Bowl chance or you won't. And I think after that, people kind of think everything's set in stone.

Like I've always said, there's a lot that goes into being a football player that isn't the playbook and being on the field, but having everything worked out in your personal life.

When chasing success, you never know where it will take you.

When it comes down to why we play football, we play to win.

That's what coaching is: It's watching film and putting guys in the best position.

I think that's the cool thing about playing at home is your fans are going to come out, and then it's up to you.

Especially in the secondary, a lot of your tackles are usually going to be in the open field, one-on-one tackles, so you can't be out there thinking about making a pretty tackle or having the ground ooh and ahh.

I don't know technique-wise, just I've always tackled the same. I've never even really thought about how I tackle or any of that.

Contract year isn't what everyone else talks about. For a player, it's just another year in the league.

That's a part of being a good football team and being good players is when it's time to go play and turn what you've practiced, what you've watched, into the game reality, we've got to go do that.

I think adversity hits people and we all know what to do when adversity hits we keep praying and we find hope.

You always want plays back; you want to do things differently. It doesn't control your day-to-day, but you always think about it.

It's always exciting to have a guy you played with in college as a teammate in the NFL.

I think that every guy who has come through New England would say that he gained a lot of knowledge and experience that made him a better football player. But they also learned what it means to be a better teammate, a better husband and a better father. I think cultivating that kind of atmosphere is something we take a lot of pride in here.