This ‘Key Moment’ Made Rodney Harrison Want To Sign With Patriots

One of Bill Belichick’s greatest attributes is the longtime Patriots head coach’s sharp attention to detail.

That characteristic helped New England win many, many games dating back to 2000, and it also helped the Patriots bring in a pillar of the first wave of their dynasty.

In the second episode of “Man in the Arena,” Rodney Harrison recalled the exact moment he knew he wanted to call Foxboro his NFL home. It dates all the way back to the former hard-hitting safety acting very much in character before a Patriots-Chargers game in the 2002 season.

“I remember warming up and hitting one of my guys and knocking his helmet off,” Harrison said .”Coach Belichick, when I was sitting in his office, he sat down and he said, ‘I remember in warm-ups you hit that guy and knocked his helmet off.’ I said, ‘You remember that?’ That little attention to detail — that was the key moment that made me sign with the Patriots because I said, ‘This guy sees everything. If he saw that and he remembers that, this is where I want to be.’ I looked at my agent and said, ‘Let’s work out a deal.'”

It proved to be a great career decision for Harrison, who reached three Super Bowls with New England and won two championships.