Devin McCourty's Reacts to Patriots Offer: 'Not Important'
Devin McCourty will go down as a New England Patriots lifer, retiring from the NFL after a 13-year career, helping them to three Super Bowls.
But McCourty was close to not being a Patriot for life, as he recently revealed on Chris Long's "Green Light" podcast how he almost left New England for a new team.
“The first time I was a free agent, (Darrelle) Revis also came for that one year, Revis was a free agent,” McCourty said. “I think the team (thought), ‘I’m the born-in Patriot, we got to keep him. But we got a chance to keep Darrelle Revis.’ I think once it fell through with Revis, I think that’s when they came back. But that year, talking to Philadelphia and Jacksonville, I was pretty close in leaving.”
But why was McCourty on the verge of leaving Foxboro? Well, he said that the Patriots gave him an offer during the fifth year of his deal that he wasn't satisfied with.
“Going into my fifth year, they offer something super low. We counter super high. And then they were like, ‘All right, we’re too far apart. We’ll just wait until the end of the season,’ ” McCourty said. “I remember when I first heard that I was like, ‘Oh (expletive). I’m not important. OK.’ So, when I got to free agency I was like, ‘All right, well now there is no deal. Like, there’s no discount. There’s none of that.’ Each time I got to free agency, I could choose where I wanted to go. So, I used that as leverage.”
That "leverage" that McCourty was talking about ultimately helped him get the offer did want, as he signed onto a five-year contract worth $47.5 million, keeping him a Patriot up until the end.
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