Compliments from Bill Belichick are few and far between. So when Dont'a Hightower heard Bill Belichick refer to him as "Mr. February," he had to pinch himself.
Belichick shot the compliment Hightower's way during the Patriots' Super Bowl LIII ring ceremony at Robert Kraft's house last month. The Patriots linebacker has a knack for coming up big in Super Bowls, so the nickname is fitting. Still, Hightower was taken aback by his head coach's praise.
“When (Belichick) said that, that’s the GOAT,” Hightower told Jeff Howe of The Athletic on Friday. “He’s coached a lot of good players. And he doesn’t necessarily give compliments as much as other coaches do, and that’s just Bill being Bill. That’s a huge honor to me. That’s crazy.”
Hightower, who has three Patriots Super Bowl rings, was sitting at a table with Kyle Van Noy, Duron Harmon, and Malcom Brown when he heard Belichick's compliment. He had to double-check to make sure he wasn't imagining things.
“When we were all sitting having a good time, he got up there and got to talking,” Hightower said. “When I heard it, I was like, ‘Did he really just say that?’ It was cool, man. It was a good way to cap off the end of the season to get a compliment like that.”
"Mr. February" is a nickname that should stick for Hightower. Stuffing then-Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch at the one-yard line in Super Bowl XLIX is one of the most important moments in Patriots history, as is strip-sacking Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan during the Patriots' 28-3 comeback in Super Bowl LI.
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