Cox focuses on present
Falcons coach appreciates time with Pats but now must stop ’em
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — He was a 33-year-old linebacker in the penultimate season of a 12-year career that had long before seen its last Pro Bowl trip. After an injury to the star quarterback, he and his teammates had hitched their wagon to a young skinny kid.
Fifteen years later, Bryan Cox is the defensive line coach for Atlanta, and now he’s trying to figure out a way to track down that same kid-turned-legend as the Falcons and Patriots hurtle toward Super Bowl LI. He couldn’t possibly have predicted any of this — even if he ever paused to consider how crazy all of this may be.
“I have not given it any thought,” said Cox, who, after five years in Miami, two in Chicago and three with the Jets, spent just the one season in New England before finishing up the next year in New Orleans. “For me, it’s the here and the now and what we’re doing over here. Over the years, I have not given it any thought.”
The burly coach is obviously still thankful to aforementioned kid Tom Brady for his role in the Pats’ championship game upset of the St. Louis Rams, who don’t even play in St. Louis anymore. It was the only trip to the Super Bowl for Cox, and it got him a fine piece of jewelry.
“It was great,” Cox said. “You’re talking about 15 years ago, career winding down, never been in that situation — and then to be in a position to win a championship. Not many people can say that. So it meant a lot.”
While the Falcons are, according to Las Vegas, the underdog in next Sunday’s game, there are many who believe they will win. No one is thinking they’ll be outclassed. In contrast, the Patriots were 14-point ’dogs to the Rams, and many outside of New England were of the opinion it wouldn’t even be that close.
“That’s white noise,” Cox said. “We just move and we just work. You just put your head down and go to work, and when things come together it’s a beautiful thing.
“We were just focused. You can’t listen to the outside noise or the clutter. You’ve just got to put your head down and go to work, and that’s what we did.” And Brady? “Well, he is certainly one of the elite quarterbacks in this game,” Cox said.
As for any clue that Brady would become what he has, Cox shook his head.
“It’s easy if you look back and say what you thought,” he said. “Yeah, a whole bunch of guys will say, ‘Oh, I knew.’ You didn’t (expletive) know. Just go out there and do the best you can. That’s what we did.”
From there, Cox veered off memory lane.
“I’m all about the here and the now,” he said. “To me, you can’t live in the past. You’ve got to move forward. And I don’t have a good memory. I got too many hits to the head, so don’t remember a lot of stuff from way back when.
“I just don’t remember a bunch of stuff from 15 years ago. I don’t remember what happened last week.”
A moment later, he said: “I remember probably five things that happened in my career,” and named four: “Don Shula winning his 300th game, Bill Parcells mentoring me, Dan Marino breaking Fran Tarkenton’s record for most passing yards, bringing my kids onto the field after the Super Bowl. I don’t remember a lot of stuff. And that’s good, because that ain’t going to help me today.”
But his experiences have helped him school the Falcons.
“Every good team has a common thread, and that’s a closeness and a bond that you can’t replace,” Cox said. “And it’s different every year, even if it’s the same team. It’s a different bond every year that you have.”
And, yeah, there is still some bond for him with those 2001 Pats.
“There’s a few guys I still talk to,” Cox said, “namely (Mike) Vrabel, Terrell Buckley, and Bobby Hamilton is one of my closest friends. He lives here in Atlanta, so we spend time together. But most of the guys when I see them, great time, good seeing you, love you, appreciate you — and keep it moving. I ain’t got time. I don’t have friends. I’m a coach. I work too many hours.
“But back then I don’t think we looked ahead. It was just we did what we did. We didn’t put that much thought into it. We just went out and played. That’s what football players do.”
And those players won the first of the Pats’ four championships, doing so with an inner belief in each other.
“When you can capture that in a locker room, it’s a wonderful thing, and that’s what we’ve done here,” Cox said, bringing the talk back to Atlanta. “We’ve captured that togetherness, that brotherhood. It don’t happen always, but when it does, it’s a wonderful thing.”
It is now Cox’ job to coach up his defensive line to get pressure on the guy who helped him get a ring. But he insists he’s not focusing on that formerly skinny kid and all the things the Patriots can do on offense.
“It don’t matter what they do; it’s what we do,” Cox said. “Don’t matter what they do. It’s all about what happens in this building and this locker room and this brotherhood. It doesn’t matter what they do. Doesn’t matter.”
But what happens in the Super Bowl will certainly matter. Even 15 years from now.
‘You’re talking about 15 years ago, career winding down, never been in that situation. . . . So it meant a lot.’ — FALCONS DEFENSIVE LINE COACH BRYAN COX On Super Bowl with Pats