New experience for Rams; old times for Patriots

While the majority of the Patriots have been there and done that, the upcoming Super Bowl will be a first for the vast majority of the Los Angeles Rams.

FOXBORO – Been there, done that.

“It’s been awesome,” safety Devin McCourty, a lifelong Patriot (Draft Class of 2010), said. “I can’t ask for a better career. To be able to play in five Super Bowls, guys that are Hall of Famers, that are top five players at their position ever, don’t get that opportunity. So I’m blessed to be drafted here by the Patriots, to play with some amazing players and then have a coaching staff like we have here that works as hard as any coaching staff in all of football. I think it shows up and it gives us the right opportunity.

“But we’re blessed. We have a lot of guys in that locker room that have played in five-plus Super Bowls or four, we’ve got guys that came here three years ago and have been to three straight Super Bowls. The truth is, individually it’s not really because of any of us. It’s been a group effort and it’s been a lot of guys and a lot of different people in this organization putting in hard work for us to get there.”

Meet the Patriots, who, led by quarterback Tom Brady (about to extend his NFL record to nine Super Bowl appearances), head toward their Super Bowl LIII date with the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday night in Atlanta carrying 38 players on their 53-man roster who have played on football’s biggest stage at least once.

Now meet the Rams, who head into Super Bowl LIII with just four players with a collective total of five Super Bowl games experience in their pasts – and one of those players, Brandin Cooks, gained that experience with the Patriots in their 41-33 loss to Philadelphia last year, a game he exited in the second quarter with a concussion.

Obviously, the Patriots’ vast advantage in experience won’t put a point on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium scoreboard, but might it help them in some way?

“I would say it helps a little bit,” special teams captain Matthew Slater, who is set to appear in the fifth Super Bowl of his 11-year career, said. “But ultimately, it’s not about experience as Coach (Bill Belichick) always says, it’s about playing well under pressure when your team needs you to play well.

“We’ve seen time after time, a guy who hasn’t been in those moments, Malcolm Butler (with his game-saving interception in the Patriots’ 28-24 win over Seattle in Super Bowl XLIX) or even Tom (quarterback Tom Brady), his first Super Bowl (the Pats’ 20-17 win over the-then St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI), guys that hadn’t been in those moments before but they were ready when their number was called and they were ready to execute. Experience does help with some aspects of this whole process, but ultimately, there’s going to be a football game that’s played, two teams that are going to be giving everything they got and there’s only going to be one winner.

“Experience, Pro Bowls, years in the league – none of that’s going to matter. It’s going to be about who has one more point than the other team at the end of the day.”

In the midst of his first postseason after spending eight years with Tennessee and last season with the winless Cleveland Browns, cornerback Jason McCourty believes the experience factor could come into play in the week leading up to the game.

“There’s a lot of different guys (on the Patriots) who have gone through this process and obviously when you get to Sunday whatever team plays better is going to be the team that wins. Experience, none of that matters on game day,” he said. “I think some of that experience kicks in when you’re talking about traveling, when you’re talking about, hey, what to bring, what’s media night like, what’s the process when we get down there, how do you handle family. Different things of that nature there’s numerous guys from Dev (his twin brother Devin) to (linebacker Dont’a) Hightower, Jules (wide receiver Julian Edelman), Tom, Gronk (tight end Rob Gronkowski) that have been multiple times that I think, those logistics, (those) are guys that you can go talk to and get a better understanding of how everything works.”

According to Gronkowski, who will be appearing in the fourth Super Bowl of his nine-year career (he missed the team's 34-28 overtime win over Atlanta after undergoing back surgery), the week leading up to the game is all about blocking – blocking out distractions, the glitz and glitter that make it the event that it is.

“There’s so many distractions all over the place when you get down there. There’s events left and right, every day, every night, morning to night,” said Gronkowski. “We’re down there for one reason and it’s to get the win. The only thing you remember from the trip is if you won or if you lost. You’ve just got to stay focused and put it all in so you can go out there and we can do what we’ve got to do.”

“I’ve been telling a lot of people, if you haven’t been there, it’s going to be the best week of your life. It’s the Super Bowl,” wide receiver Phillip Dorsett, the former Indianapolis Colt who is headed toward his second Super Bowl in as many seasons with the Patriots, said. “It’s the ultimate team game. If you’re a football player, you dream of being in the Super Bowl.

“I don’t take it for granted. It’s going to be a great week, but you can’t let your focus shift to things that don’t matter. The only thing that really matters is the game and that’s all you can really worry about.”