The Patriots are entering this week with a chance to bring New England fans a Lombardi Trophy for the 5th time. Several of the Patriot’s are familiar with the Super Bowl routine but that doesn’t make this time around any less important.
Two years ago, Malcolm Butler emerged from behind the scenes with his game winning interception that brought Seattle’s quest for two Super Bowl wins in a row to an end. This time around, Super Bowl 51 will be special to him for a different reason.
“In the last Super Bowl, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have a role the last SB, now I have role this year. I’m expected to play. I’ll be ready. I won’t have to guess if I’ll be playing.”
For Dion Lewis, he has is appreciative of one thing: “Just being healthy. Being in the great situation I’m in now and just doing what I love to do at the highest level.”
Then you have Danny Amendola who grew up in The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb of Houston that’s about a 38-minute drive north from NRG Stadium, where the wide receiver is expecting to have plenty of family and friends cheering him on his second career Super Bowl.
“This Super Bowl is extra special for me because I’m from Houston and playing here is great.”
Similar to Amendola, Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater say that having their families on-hand makes this game special for them as well.
“Being in my 9th year and not knowing how many more of these opportunities, I’ll have, I’m really trying to cherish it,” said Slater. “And now having a son who’s 14 months old, he doesn’t know what’s going on but being able to have him here and share that experience with him is really special. Before it was just me but now it’s the Slater family. So we’re going to try to enjoy it.”
“My wife makes this one special for me,” said McCourty. “We got married in April. We’re expecting our first child. Hopefully, she’ll be able to make it. She’s got a doctor appointment on Wednesday. I talked to the baby girl and told her she needs to wait until after Sunday.”
Although they all have their unique personal perspectives going into Super Bowl 51, everything still comes down winning.
“Just after winning the first one, you want to win it again. Last year I felt like we had a good shot and we fell short,” stated Dont’a Hightower. This year we were able to overcome adversity a few times throughout the year and we worked hard. We worked to get here. Nothing is ever handed out. We got one more.”
According to McCourty, “It’s just cool being able to go after a 5th Super Bowl win. Being able to contribute to that legacy and organization and what they’ve meant to the NFL, I think it would be an extraordinary experience. Just getting a chance to meet those guys who were apart of those three Super Bowls, getting a chance to play with Kevin Faulk, and of course Tom Brady who experienced those.You know how they felt winning multiple Super Bowl’s and now getting an opp to add to that and make it a multiple Super Bowl for myself. We’re looking forward to it but know it’s going to be a hard game and a tough time trying to go out there and win a 5th one.”
“Five Super Bowl’s means a lot. It’ll be great for the organization, us players and the fans, it’ll just be great,” stated Malcolm Butler.
We’ll see who reigns supreme after this Sunday’s game but one thing is for sure, this isn’t just another Super Bowl for the Patriots.
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