Langi looking to beat odds with Patriots the second time around

As a rookie free agent, linebacker Harvey Langi beat long odds with the team in 2017. Now he looks to bounce back from a serious automobile accident in Foxboro last October.

FOXBORO – As a rookie free agent out of Brigham Young University, linebacker Harvey Langi faced long odds when he reported to the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots last summer.

As the victim of a violent automobile accident a little more than a couple of months later, Langi faced even longer odds in his NFL career last fall.

“Yeah, it was a car accident back in October and it was a scary experience that my wife (Cassidy) and I had to go through,” said Langi. “Thank God my wife is 100 percent fine and recovering. She’s awesome and I’m grateful and humbled that I get to put the helmet and pads back on and be out here and help the team.”

After beating the original odds and making the Patriots’ 53-man roster coming out of training camp, Langi had appeared in one game, making a stop on special teams in the Pats' 36-20 win at New Orleans last Sept. 17, and been inactive for six when he was hospitalized with head, neck and back injuries when his car was struck from behind by another vehicle while stopped at a red light in Foxboro. His wife broke both hips and several ribs in the accident.

Placed on the reserve/non-football injury list last Oct. 25, seven months later Langi has been back in uniform, participating in this spring’s organized team activities heading into the upcoming week’s mandatory team minicamp on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium.

“Things happen in the past, but I’m here today,” Langi said following Thursday’s OTA. “I just have to keep working every single day. It’s great to be out here, it’s a blessing to be out here, I love being out here. So, I just want to keep bringing energy every time I come out here.”

Without question, Langi’s odds remain long as he bids to make the Patriots for a second straight year. For while the team may not be loaded with talent on the edge of its defense, it isn’t lacking for bodies there.

But then, Langi has faced a numbers game before, not only in football but merely in growing up in his household in South Jordan, Utah.

“I come from a big family and being the second oldest of 10 kids (seven boys and three girls), a lot of my brothers and sisters followed what I did,” said Langi. “If I’m always ‘Negative Nancy’ or only saw all the negative stuff it would be pretty rough growing up with me. I look up to my older brother and he’s a positive guy, too. Positive vibes are always good. You can never go wrong with being kind.”

Then again, when one has been through what his 6-foot-2, 252-pounder has been through, at this stage of the game he feels lucky simply to be ready, willing and able to play football.

“The accident was huge and it was a big setback, but it’s over with and I’m out here,” said Langi. “And, man, I’m just grateful. I love being out here. This is great. People ask me what I’m doing today and (I can tell them) I’m going to put a helmet on and come out here and work with the rest of the guys and give everything I’ve got. Man, that’s the best.

“I’m super grateful and super blessed that things didn’t turn in a different direction where I can’t be out here. Things didn’t and I’m out here and I’m grateful. I’m just going to come out here and hope and do everything I can to help this team win some games and hopefully go on to championships.”