We thought from the get-go he was special. – Kyle Whittingham
SALT LAKE CITY — A reality star becoming president is a shocker, any way you view it. So is transitioning from grocery stocker to Super Bowl MVP, a la Kurt Warner.
But Eric Rowe possibly starting for New England in the Super Bowl?
No big surprise for those who recruited and coached him at the University of Utah. It’s a natural progression. Look for the body type, says Ute coach Kyle Whittingham. Look for the physicality, speed and competitiveness.
“We thought from the get-go he was special,” Whittingham says.
Sunday’s annual football extravaganza will again feature someone who played at Utah. Rowe is a defensive back, a position where the Utes have flourished. Other Utah DBs to have played in the NFL: Keith McGill, Sean Smith, R.J. Stanford, Brandon Burton, Robert Johnson, Brice McCain, Eric Weddle, Arnold Parker, Antwoine Sanders, Andre Dyson.
“Eric’s just like the rest of the talented DBs we’ve had that have gone on to the league,” Whittingham says. “He’s got great length, wingspan, height, speed, hips, competitiveness. He’s in the same mold. It doesn’t surprise me the success he’s had.”
The Utes weren’t the only team to notice Rowe. A prep basketball star in Houston, he was recruited by Texas A&M, TCU, Oklahoma State and Baylor before choosing Utah, where he started as a true freshman. In his senior season coaches convinced him to move from safety to corner.
That was good news for cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah. Rowe is 6 foot 1, 205 pounds, with the speed of a receiver and the physicality of a safety. Too often cornerbacks are undersized speedsters who would rather avoid contact. If you ask his former coaches, Rowe is smart as a surgeon and tough as a dockworker.
“So many skills,” Shah says.
Selected in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Eagles, he started five games that season, logging a combined 30 tackles to go with an interception and five breakups. But his stock fell before the 2016 season began. He slipped to No. 5 on the depth chart, prompting the Eagles to deal him to New England for a fourth-round pick in 2018. An ankle injury kept him out the first five games of 2016, but he finished by starting seven of nine games, compiling 26 combined tackles, eight deflections and an interception. In the AFC championship game against Pittsburgh he had two deflections and a 37-yard interception return.
The preseason trade still mystifies him.
“I don’t know what happened,” he told NJ Advance Media. “I didn’t think I did that bad of a job to slide down the depth chart.”
The Patriots apparently agreed. Among those he could be matched against on Sunday is Atlanta All-Pro receiver Julio Jones, who is part of the highest-scoring offense in the league.
That Rowe made the most of his second chance doesn’t mean he is bragging about it. He’s more of an action guy. He didn’t call his trade a snub, insult or even a motivator. Though he admits to being shocked, he now calls it “a blessing.”
That’s what a Super Bowl appearance does for perspective.
Quiet and modest in front of the media, Rowe is “a comedian, a jokester” in the locker room, according to Shah. He quotes movie lines on demand.
“Once he opens up,” says Whittingham, “he’s pretty funny.”
As Shah puts it, “He’s good at making fun of guys.”
Being in the Super Bowl, though, is no joking matter, and Rowe knows it.
“Going through this experience,” the cornerback told reporters this week, “it’s surreal.”
In 2015 he told Philadelphia magazine he needed to gain confidence so he could handle the high level of competition. But after covering Detroit’s Calvin Johnson in a game, he changed his perspective.
“I can play with these guys,” he said afterward.
Back in the football offices at Utah, they were nodding.