New Detroit Lions safety Duron Harmon isn't the kind of glitzy player who generates huge headlines or creates lots of buzz among fans. But he could be one of the Lions' most important additions this year.
The Lions acquired Harmon in a trade Wednesday with the New England Patriots, with whom he won two of his three Super Bowl rings while Lions coach Matt Patricia was defensive coordinator.
According to Patricia, Harmon was one of the shining examples of the winning culture the Patriots built and was one of the catalysts for helping them rally from a 21-3 halftime deficit against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51.
The Free Press attended a keynote speech Patricia gave in February at his alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. While addressing the school's annual military ball, Patricia spoke of Harmon's role in the 34-28 victory over Atlanta.
"I know there are kind of really amazing events to be down, 28-3, in (the third quarter of) a Super Bowl game," Patricia said, "walk into the locker room where kind of everything was headed and to be able to walk out of the locker room for the second half going, 'Oh my God, we're going to win this game.' It wasn't even a doubt because of the culture we had established and that was built underneath it. ...
"It's a weird game. It's really like two games in one. You have the first half. We call it the ebbs and flows of the game. It's up and down. You've got TV commercials every 30 seconds. They're switching the balls because they're going to auction them off to every single charity in the country. So the game is just bizarre and we obviously weren't playing really well."
Patricia said players got a 10-minute break while coaches huddled and devised their second-half plan. When he returned, he laid it out for his players.
"I just went back to the defense," he said, "and I said, 'Look, this is how this is going to go. We're going to go out and we're going to make a negative play on the first play. We're going to get a (tackle for loss) in the run game. We're going to go three-and-out on the first series. I want to kick this thing off right. We're going to win this game.' "
As soon as Patricia wrapped up his talk, Harmon worked his magic.
"And I walked away from the defense and Duron Harmon, who was one of our defensive players, he's on the bike and he's pedaling," Patricia said. "And he starts chirping. And he's in the locker room. And he's starting to get the energy going. And that belief, that confidence, it's going and it's loud.
"And Julian Edelman walks in from the offensive side. And he starts chirping at Duron. And everyone in the whole room, the intensity, all of it's getting ready to explode."
That's when Patricia's epiphany occurred.
"And as we walk out of the locker room," he said, "I'm like, 'We're going to win. We're going to win. I don't care what the score is. It doesn't matter right now.' That culture that we had built, that unwavering belief that we could go out and do anything, that the score didn't really matter. I knew it right from there."
Patricia has made an effort to establish a winning culture with the Lions since he was hired in 2018. A player such as Harmon could help achieve that goal as well as help provide a good example for young safeties like Tracy Walker and Will Harris.
