FOXBORO, Massachusetts — Dont’a Hightower considered working as a coach with Jerod Mayo as early as 2012.
When they were linebackers for the New England Patriots in the past, Hightower, a rookie, took the veterans’ lunch orders before running to Skipjacks for sushi. Mayo, who had always known that coaching was his destiny, was choosing his future coordinators with Vince Wilfork and Devin McCourty when Hightower approached.
“(Mayo) was like, ‘You can be my special teams coach,’” Hightower recalled last month in a conversation with The Athletic. “I was like, ‘Damn, bro, special teams?’ It was all fun and games. Whenever I think about it, that’s the first event that pops up. It’s really surreal how it’s unfolded.”
Jokes frequently include a kernel of truth, and that day was no exception. Coach Bill Belichick had two of the most intelligent and well-respected leaders on his team in Mayo and Hightower, so it seemed obvious that after they retired from playing, they would follow their passion of becoming coaches.
Mayo was a 2019 hire of Belichick’s staff who continued to be the bug in Hightower’s ear as his career was coming to an end. And when Mayo was selected to take over as coach in January after Belichick’s retirement, he asked one of his best friends to be the head of the inside linebackers unit.
After two years of retirement, Hightower made an easy decision.
“It was something I was kind of looking forward to,” Hightower said of coaching. “I enjoyed my time off with my family, but I think it was kind of getting to the point where my wife (Morgan) was like, ‘You either need to concentrate on golf, or you need to go coach.’ I feel like it all happened pretty good and at the right time.”
Hightower required the time apart from his family in Tennessee in order to mentally rejuvenate. During his stellar playing career with the Patriots, Hightower made advantage of time that was not always accessible. He spent it gardening with his wife and spending breakfast with his kid, who turns 4 in July.
However, Hightower knew he was getting closer to the sideline with each misplaced Titleist ProV1 golf ball (about four dozen in his first week alone) and each yell at the TV during a game. Additionally, Morgan Hightower was completely on board, presumably due to her desire to stop hearing about the distinctions between coverage shells and her awareness of the itch caused by the numerous in-game texts he would send to former teammates, such as Kyle Van Noy, to congratulate them on big plays or to chastise them for missing assignments.
But when it came to his future plans, Hightower was not sure if he wanted to become a strength coach, consultant, or take on a positional role. Coincidentally, one of his closest confidants occurred to call. On Hightower’s short list, Mayo—a first-time head coach following five years as an assistant—was among the best.
“It was really honestly like if (former Alabama coach) Nick (Saban) or Mayo would have called me, those were the only two people I would have wanted to get with,” Hightower said. “Other than that, I probably would have just stayed at home and worked on my golf game.
“The transition has been great. Some days you wake up, and it doesn’t even feel like work. Sometimes when I was playing football, I was going in and my knees hurt. My shoulders hurt. Surgeries, all this other stuff. Now it’s just me talking football, spreading my knowledge, being able to relate to these guys. It’s really awesome to be back in the world of football, just to talk about it and be around it.”
Although he acknowledged that this is very different, Hightower, a three-time Super Bowl champion nicknamed “Mr. February” by Belichick for his propensity for making spectacular plays, was a pseudo-coach during his career. Given his upbringing under Saban and Belichick, Hightower is not attempting to overcomplicate things just because of his prior successes.
Instead, the 34-year-old is merely attempting to lead, mentor, and identify his areas of strength with a completely new team.
“Honestly, there are players you play with that you’re thinking this guy is just on it,” Mayo said. “His knowledge of the scheme, how the offense was trying to attack us and what we needed to do as far as adjustments, he was one of those players.
“He has a chance to be a very special coach. And he has that instant credibility because he did it at a high level.”
Hightower was described by Mayo as “a rookie.” He is still learning, especially when it comes to coaching and communicating with players from other systems, where picking up a new defense is like to picking up a new language.
There are furthermore more nuanced obligations. He has never been required to draft a scouting report or assess an employee’s performance from the viewpoint of a higher-ranking official. However, the work ethic has lived up to expectations for Eliot Wolf, the de facto general manager, who had little previous experience with Hightower.
“He was really inquisitive, wanted to sit down and ask a ton of questions to not only me but guys on the staff,” Wolf said. “He’s got an eye for it, so that obviously made it easier. Really just his presence and his ability, sometimes you run into former players who really just still want to be around it but they don’t want to work. That hasn’t been the case with him.”
Hightower is not merely interested in football for the short term. Though it will be a while off, he acknowledged that he would like to work his way up to the point where he can become a head coach.
“I mean,” Hightower laughed, “I’ve been doing this for two months.”
It genuinely feels like a fresh start. Even though he excelled at Alabama and was selected in the first round of the draft, he had to overcome a real learning curve in the beginning of his Patriots career, and this coaching position has required comparable adaptations.
He has depended heavily on Mayo, just like he did as a player.
“I want to be a good coach, so I want to be a good teacher,” Hightower said. “I want to be a guy they’re comfortable talking to. Iwould not want anyone to see my achievements. I am making an effort to impart my expertise such that it can be applied to a variety of situations.
“I just want to be able to help develop and empower those guys to continue to be good players, continue to develop and grow as great young men.”
(Top photo of Dont’a Hightower: Dale Zanine / USA Today)
