FOXBORO, Mass. — Johnny Hekker got to strut his stuff in front of his No. 1 fan Sunday: New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
Belichick spent the week raving about Hekker, calling the Los Angeles Rams punter “a tremendous weapon” and one of the best players he has ever seen at his position.
Asked about Belichick’s comments after the game, which the Patriots won 26-10 at Gillette Stadium, Hekker said he appreciated the love.
“It was cool and a little flattering hearing that from a longtime ball coach,” Hekker told reporters. “I would love to have him raving about some other players on our team, because we have guys that are worthy of that kind of stuff, but it is a difficult year for us.
“The weirdest other thing is that I was the player that (was) asked for the conference call when we played Seattle a couple of years back. That was about the most attention that has ever been given to me by the other team’s media. It was cool for my parents to shoot me those texts and definitely gave them a proud moment. They were able to send them to all of their buddies. They were all pretty excited about it.”
The Patriots clearly were the much better team Sunday, but Hekker came as advertised. He averaged 52.9 yards on eight punts — including a monstrous 76-yarder in the fourth quarter — and New England finished with a grand total of 7 punt-return yards.
“Eight punts (Sunday), and I am not here looking for any silver lining,” Hekker said. “It sucks. Losing sucks. To punt eight times, we are not getting the job done on offense, and we take some pride in trying to get field position handled and all that taken care of. It is a long day for our special teams unit if we are punting eight times.”
Hekker swapped jerseys with his Patriots counterpart, Ryan Allen, after the game. Allen and Hekker played together at Oregon State before the former transferred to Louisiana Tech.
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
