Before Bill Belichick handed the phone to owner Robert Kraft on the first night of the 2010 NFL Draft, the Patriots twice delayed their selection, trading with Denver and Dallas to drop from the 22nd pick to the 27th.
When they finally chose Rutgers defensive back Devin McCourty, many outsiders considered it a questionable call. But as Kraft took hold of the handset inside the team’s headquarters, he’d been told differently.
“We heard that you’re the perfect Patriot,” he said to McCourty, pressing the receiver to his left ear and continuing. “You represent everything we’re about.”
Kraft heard right. The Pats went backward for the best man to help lead them forward.
At the time, you’ll recall — or you’ll be reminded the next time “A Football Life: Bill Belichick,” filmed in 2009, re-airs on NFL Network — they were coming off an embarrassing Wild Card loss and in need of repairing cracks in their cultural foundation.
In McCourty, they got a rock on which to build the second half of their two-decade dynasty. Or, as Belichick referred to Devin on Friday, “a pillar” who proved Kraft’s words prophetic.
Consistently. Sometimes spectacularly. Always steadily and authentically, as both player and person. Never failing to live up to such high praise in 13 seasons as a Patriot.
On Friday, McCourty told us there won’t be a 14th, announcing his decision to retire in an online video with identical twin Jason, who, as a teammate from 2018-20, represented the closest we’ll ever get to a clone of “the perfect Patriot.”
Combining an athletic DNA made equally of speed and strength with a mental and emotional alchemy combining toughness, intellect and character, McCourty was a remarkably durable player and unfailingly dependable person.
He steps aside after 229 regular- and postseason starts, his last (a 115th straight) at age 35; his body of work fit for coats in red and gold, respectively, as a will-be Patriots and should-be Pro Football Hall of Famer.
A three-time champ who came this close to two more titles. A four-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro. A 12-time captain. A playmaker. A difference maker.
Blessed with speed, range and smarts, McCourty picked off 34 regular-season passes — only two fewer than franchise interception leaders Ty Law and Raymond Clayborn. Effort and instincts made him an accomplice to many more.
Take the time Miami’s Ryan Tannehill lobbed a pass toward Mike Wallace in October 2013. Tracking the football from center field to the offense’s right sideline, McCourty timed his leap impeccably, high-pointed it and, like a basketball player about to land out of bounds, made a two-handed save to a toe-tapping Marquice Cole.
Cole was credited with the pick. McCourty made it happen.
It’s like so much of his finest work, for which there is no accounting. As the quarterback of New England’s defense, he coordinated coverages, counseled secondary mates between series and communicated last-second, pre-snap alerts. McCourty did it all to prevent potential game-turning moments.