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Patriots Safety Duron Harmon on Getting Back to Work for 2015 - 'I’m ready to go'

Ian Logue
Ian Logue on Twitter
May 29, 2015 at 5:00am ET

Here's a recent interview with Patriots safety Duron Harmon, who talked to Russ Goldman and Steve Balestrieri recently about a variety of topics, including an upcoming football camp he'll be a part of hosting along with several other Patriots players at UMASS Lowell from July 12-15.

If you have a youth football player and you'd like to look into getting them registered for what should be a terrific experience, you can sign them up by Clicking This Link.

Full Site Link: https://www.footballcamps.com/default.asp?page=20&camp=5

PF: Joining us now is Patriots safety Duron Harmon. Duron, welcome to PatriotsFourthAndTwo!

DH: Thank you for having me, it’s an honor to be on the show today.

PF: Well it’s great to have you on Duron. Let’s start here, I want to ask you several questions. You’re going to be participating in the Sports international football academy, which takes place at UMASS Lowell from July 12-15. Tell us about this academy and what campers have to look forward to during the camp?

DH: Well, I was able to partake in it on a minor role last year with Aqib Talib and just go out there for a day or two and spend some time with the campers, just trying to show them some things that I’ve learned on my journey to the NFL. I think it’s a weekend camp if I’m not mistaken, 4 or 5 days you get to work on your offensive game, defensive game, just build on your knowledge and learning, not only from NFL players, but from coaches who know the game as well. Just enhancing your abilities to play the game. It’s a fun time, you meet new people, and you get to have a great time and just play football, what we love to do each and every day for four days. It’s a four day grind and it’s amazing. If I had this when I was in high school, and even younger, I definitely would have went.

PF: That’s great, and I noticed that a few of your teammates are going to be joining you as well.

DH: Yes, definitely. We’ve got Dont’a Hightower coming, Chris Jones, I believe [Dominique] Easley’s coming as well, some other guys are coming, I can’t name them all off the top of my head, but it’s going to be a bunch of us out there who are eager to work with these kids and these younger adults because we know that it’s an important time, especially for the high schoolers, it’s an important time for them, they’re trying to get ready to perfect their craft, get better at their craft, continue to get better, try to get ready to go play in college. So it’s a great time, an enjoyable time, it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to have a lot of interaction between us and the campers.

PF: Listen, talking about working with people, during the season one of the things that tends to get unnoticed is a lot of the charity work you guys do on your off days. Can you talk a little bit about some of the things you did last season, some of the organizations that you enjoy supporting?

DH: Well, one organization that I’ve worked with is “Fuel up to Play 60”. It’s a breakfast type program that teaches kids the importance of eating breakfast. So I’ve gotten to go all the way to Vermont, I went to New Hampshire, I’ve been in Massachusetts, schools all around those areas just talking about the idea, basically, “enjoy and eat breakfast so you can have a great day.”

And then I did other things, hospital visits, school visits, Reading across America, just all different types of events that just help us show our faces in the community to let them know that we’re not just NFL players, we are the community as well. We love this community. The way they cheer us on, the way they come out to the games and the way they show us the amount of love, we want to show it back. We love being able to inspire people by going. Like I said, going to a hospital visit, going to a veteran home, going to read books to the children, just that anything that we can do, this organization does a great job of putting us in positions to give back to the community.

PF: That’s great, it sounds like you enjoy giving back and that’s a wonderful trait to have, Duron, honestly.

Alright, let’s move on, let’s now talk some football and before I ask you about the Super Bowl, I want to go back a little further and talk about the AFC Divisional Round against the Ravens, your interception late in the game was crucial to this victory. Walk us through what was going through your mind on the play that changed the playoff game.

DH: Well, it was just knowing the personnel. You see Tori Smith coming out of the huddle, him and Joe Flacco had, like, an extended look. I took a peek out there when the play was developing and saw that Tori Smith took an outside release. I looked back at Joe Flacco and he is really staring over there, so I’m trying to make my way over there and you see the ball released, and I’m like, “Ok, I’m right here, just come down with the ball, just catch the ball, come down with it, focus on catching this ball, and then we’re getting this game this way.” It really was that, just me focusing on squeezing the ball and just taking a knee in the end zone. The way the crowd erupted in the stadium was amazing. I’ve never heard a stadium, probably that loud until Malcolm [Butler’s] interception in the Super Bowl. But that right there was an amazing feeling and I’m just happy and thankful and blessed that I was able to make that play.

PF: Let’s talk about the Super Bowl. Just share with us your thoughts and emotions after Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson which turned out to be the difference in the game, what happened right afterwards?

DH: To be honest, I ran on the field. I just ran on the field and I was in on the pile that was literally probably suffocating Malcolm. He probably couldn’t breathe. There was about 10 of us, probably about 12, maybe about 15 of us on him. It was crazy because a couple plays before, I’m in on the play where the ball takes a crazy bounce. I think the ball hits off the ground, so I jump over [Seahawks receiver Jermaine] Kearse and Malcolm, and then I turn around and I see Kearse is up. Like, literally, my heart is broken on the sideline because I feel like I let the team down, I felt like I let up. But then that play literally lifted me back up. I just had to run on the field, I really couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t have been a better ending to a story. When everybody thinks a game is over, Malcolm comes out and makes a tremendous play.

PF: Steve and I were down for minicamp, we saw Malcolm Butler shine a little bit at minicamp and then also at training camp. Was this an often occurance that you guys would see in practice with Malcolm Butler being able to make plays?

DH: Oh yes, definitely. Every week, he got his hand on a ball in practice either if it was when he was playing our defense or when we were on the scout team, his hands were always on the ball and it was something that we saw when he came in minicamp and OTA’s, he always had his hands on the ball and you could tell that he was going to be a special player then. It was just the amount of time that it would take for him just to keep learning the defense and keep learning the terminology of the defense and keep working to get better and you could just see the transition from when he was there in minicamp to the end of the season and the sky is really the limit for him.

PF: Duron, I know last season you stayed here all through the offseason and you did your workouts. Did you do the same thing this season, or did you go down to Arizona? I know a lot of the guys went down there this year…

DH: I did both. I trained here, as usual, but then one week this spring I went to Arizona to see what everybody was talking about and how good the training was out there and it was amazing. It’s something that I definitely plan on doing in the future. A couple weeks probably before camp, a week in the spring, just going out there, probably working out with my guys, Devin, Logan [Ryan], Tavon [Wilson]. We’ve all been out there and it was great to work out with your teammates with just no distraction and just getting after it. It kind of felt like college a little bit again. We were all staying together, all living together, and then we go work out. Then we just chill around, have a good time, play video games, listen to music and stuff like that. Eat together, so it’s been good. It’s a great bonding time too, so it’s something that I’m definitely looking forward to doing again.

PF: I know that you guys had a very short spring this year because you’re already right back into the workouts. How are you feeling physically? Are you feeling like you’re ready to go?

DH: I mean, the good thing about me is I’m still young. I don’t really feel too bad right now. You probably have to ask the older guys, they’re the ones that might not feel too good. But I’m feeling great. I’m ready to go and I’m really, really looking forward to this season to get starting up again.

PF: I have to ask you a question about another charity you were involved in. On May 1st you and Patrick Chung had a “World of Taste” for Charity, who’s the better chef?

DH: I would say me. I feel like we really did get cheated in the tasting, but I won’t go too much in detail in that, I’ll just let that be. But I would just say that was an amazing event, it was so much fun. Being able to bring that many people there, raise money, and have a good time doing it, you really can’t beat that. Everybody was there, they were nice, just being able to cook in front of everybody. I really felt like I was a chef even though I really wasn’t doing too much. I was letting Chef Josh, who I was working with, I was trying to let him do everything. I had my gloves on, I didn’t do the apron, I should have, maybe we would have won if I had done the apron. But it was an amazing event, it was a great night and it was a great turnout.

PF: I did see that, I didn’t get a chance to go down there but I wanted to find out who the next great chef is on the Patriots?

DH: We’ll say Patrick for right now. But next year, if we’re fortunate enough to do it again, he’s going down.

Once again, if you have a youth football player and you'd like to look into getting them registered for what should be a terrific experience, or if you have a friend who may have a child playing football, you can sign them up by Clicking This Link.

Full Site Link: https://www.footballcamps.com/default.asp?page=20&camp=5


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