After spending the first eight seasons of his career with the Tennessee Titans, cornerback Jason McCourty was released following the 2016 season. Having spent a month on the open market, the veteran signed to a two-year contract with the Cleveland Browns – and became a part of one of the worst teams in NFL history: after averaging 6.3 games victories per year in Tennessee, McCourty and the 2017 Browns became just the second team ever to go 0-16.
While McCourty had a relatively successful individual campaign, Cleveland still opted to let him go and traded him to the New England Patriots in March. Not only was the then-30-year old reunited with his twin brother Devin McCourty, he also get to taste victory again. On Thursday night, after the Patriots defeated the visiting Indianapolis Colts in prime time, the starting cornerback showed his emotions:
"That's the way to step it up on a short week."
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 6, 2018
Inside the #Patriots locker room after Thursday night's win. pic.twitter.com/ardgyQDm3I
“Yeah, I’m excited,” McCourty shouted after entering the locker room following New England’s 38-24 win. “I did a lot of losing last year.” The defender, who had a very good performance against the Colts, was not the only one happy with the Patriots improving to 3-2 on the year: as the behind-the-scenes clip from patriots.com shows, head coach Bill Belichick also appeared to be happy – at least partially.
“That’s the way to suck it up on a short week,” Belichick told his men. “Good effort out there. Certainly not our best, we left some plays on the field, but made plenty to win – more than they did.” The future Hall of Famer then told his team that it would get the weekend off before giving the floor to team captain Matthew Slater and the breakdown of the postgame huddle. So how did the Patriots feel about a Thursday night win? Awww yeah.