Abbey Gregory - Relentless: a memoir

F rom the moment we got into our locker room at halftime, I told anyone whod listen how the second half was going to go. Its gonna be a helluva story, boys!

With the score leaving us buried under a 213 deficit, Super Bowl LI had been a thirty-minute horror show at NRG Stadium in Houston. The Atlanta Falcons speed and execution and our lack of precision put us in a Super Bowl hole deeper than one any team had ever climbed out of.

What made me so sure there would be a plot twist? Didnt I have doubts? No. Wed been in holes like this before. In Super Bowl XLIX, we trailed by 10 at the start of the fourth quarter against Seattle. No team had ever erased a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl. We did.

Nobody believed in us then. I was sure nobody believed in us now. That didnt matter. Nobody believed a lot of us would even get to the NFL. Here we were. Nobody believed Tom Brady would go from a sixth-round pick to the best ever. He did. Nobody believed Bill Belichick was a legend-in-waiting when he was hired by the Patriots in 2000. He was. Nobody believed I could play quarterback at a Division 1 football program in college and turn myself into a wide receiver in the NFL. I had. Our organization was loaded with people who ignored doubters to get where they were.

The key to achieving isnt looking at the ultimate goal. Its believing and then focusing completely on the next step in front of you. Thats what our offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, kept telling us. Dont do anything you cant do. Dont try to make it all up in one play. Play each play by itself.

Just before the second-half kickoff, Tom sat down next to me on our bench. I reminded him once more, Gonna be a helluva story.

Hell, yeah, he said.

Coming out of halftime, the Falcons threw one more shovelful of dirt on us and went up 283. Finally, it was time to dig out, and everybody grabbed a shovel.

We were down 289 after three quarters thanks to a James White touchdown catch. We added on a Stephen Gostkowski field goal to make it 2812. Donta Hightower strip-sacked Matt Ryan and TB cashed that in with a touchdown pass to Danny Amendola early in the fourth quarter. We got the two-point conversion from James and you couldnt help but do the math in your head and think, Hey, we have an opportunity here

We were almost out of the hole.

There was an excitement right then that you could feel. Its hard to describe it. Ive been on mentally tough teams, but this one was something special. We played the first four games of the season without Tom. We lost his backup Jimmy Garoppolo in the second game of the season. We pulled together as a team after getting rocked by the trade of one of our best defensive players, Jamie Collins. We kept on after losing our great tight end Rob Gronkowski to a back injury. We knew how to take a punch. We also knew how to respond to one.

Poise meant everything. We knew what we were in the midst of doing in that second half. Hell, Duron Harmon, one of our safeties, walked into the locker room at halftime and said, This is going to be the greatest comeback of all time! and we all believed him. But we had a lot to do to make Duronand meprophets. There was no early celebrating. I thought, Its happening, but I wont get excited like we accomplished something. Just keep going. One play at a time. Do your job. Stay in the moment. The messages wed received from Coach Belichick since we became Patriots were in full effect as we took the field with 3:36 remaining, 91 yards and a two-point conversion from tying the game.

We know situations. Our percentages were low. Real low. We had to be almost perfect. We needed a chunk play: a bunch of yards in one big bite. Thats important for a successful two-minute drive, and the Falcons knew it as well as we did. Theyd be looking for any downfield throws.

On first-and-10 from our 36 with 2:28 left, we went for the chunk.

As we came to the line, I saw that the Falcons alignment gave me a chute route, which meant that if their two safeties were split, I would keep my route thin, sprinting in a direct line toward the goalpost upright nearest me. If there was a single safety in the middle of the field, it would be a situation known as middle field closed and I would run a crossing route. Its a pretty standard NFL route. You just adjust and take what the defense is giving you.

Atlanta moved into a defense known as cover-5. Thats two deep safeties, each one covering half of the field, and man-to-man coverage underneath. My defender, the Falcons corner Robert Alford, had inside leverage, meaning he was lined up to stop me from going inside him to the middle of the field. We both knew that the deep middle was the weak spot, because the safeties were split. Just beat Alford, then get inside him.

Wed executed the same play a couple of times in practice leading up to the Super Bowl back when we were in Foxborough. Usually, if we hit something in practice thats a chunk play, Tom will want to run it because it means were already comfortable with it. You need that confidence.

Alford was backed off the line about three yards. Our big tight end, Martellus Bennett, was lined up to my right, and outside him was James White, our running back. At the snap, I had to get up on Alford fast, then shake him.

Alford is a really good cornerbackhe even had a pick-6 on Tom in the first halfbut I felt I had him where I wanted him. I took off hard to set him up for a sharp cut about ten yards downfield. But I didnt give him a great move. Instead of sticking my right foot in the ground hard and cutting sharply, I rushed and rolled into my cut. I didnt get across his face as effectively as I wanted. Alford warded me off and caused me to drift a little farther upfield so my cut wasnt sharp at all.