Jason McCourty: Being teammates with twin brother ‘a dream come true for us’

Jason and Devin McCourty were football teammates in Pop Warner, high school, and college.

Then, once they reached the NFL after forming a cornerback duo at Rutgers University, the twin brothers went their separate ways … for nine seasons. Of course, they kept in constant touch and compared notes. But they were always longing for that day when they could play for the same club as professionals.

‘I had already said to my wife my No. 1 option would be if we could get to New England’

Finally, that day arrived on March 15, with the Cleveland Browns trading Jason, who played cornerback for them last year after eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans, to the New England Patriots, for whom Devin has played safety since 2010.

“Oh, man, it’s huge,” Jason recently told Vic Carucci and David Diehl on the Opening Drive. “Just kind of going into this offseason unsure of what was going to happen in Cleveland, even going into (March 15) when I found out I was going to be released. I had already said to my wife my No. 1 option would be if we could get to New England and get the opportunity to play alongside Dev. So when it ended up working out that way, it was just a blessing, a dream come true for us.

‘You dream about, ‘Man, one day if we can make it to the NFL and play alongside each other’

“When you have a twin brother (and) you’re always playing on the same team and you dream about, ‘Man, one day if we can make it to the NFL and play alongside each other,’ so right now we have the opportunity to do so. I’m just excited now. Once April hits and we start up our workouts, just to be in that same locker room, to be in the meeting rooms and get started.”

From the time Devin joined the Patriots, Jason has had a steady dialogue with him discussing game plans against upcoming opponents. They’ve talked about the quarterbacks and receivers they’d be facing, and how to approach each of them.

‘I’m really excited to sit in those meeting rooms and be a part of that’

“So I’ve always been intrigued by some of the things that (the Patriots have) been able to do — their expertise in game-planning and how they approach certain offenses,” Jason said. “So I’m really excited to sit in those meeting rooms and be a part of that and to just help bring my talents to the team and my experience. Just from being in this league and going into my 10th year to bring just a different set of eyes to kind of attack to those type of things and those type of assignments and see how much I can help the team and just to continue to kind of strive forward to get to our goals.

“We’ve been separated for almost 10 years now, kind of gaining our own expertise in the game and studying and seeing the game through our own eyes and our own teams. So it will be really interesting now that we come together to see how similar we are, how different we’ve become over the years and how much we can kind of push each other and show each other’s own perspectives to help each other and the team in general just to get better.”