FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Dont’a Hightower was two weeks removed from winning the national championship with Alabama in January when he sat down to watch the AFC championship game.
Now a rookie linebacker with New England, Hightower remembers the title game fondly, and not for the reason you may think.
When asked what he recalled most from that epic clash, a 23-20 win by the Patriots that propelled them to the Super Bowl, Hightower on Friday declined to mention former Baltimore kicker Billy Cundiff shanking a 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds left that would have sent the game to overtime.
Instead, he focused on the whole thing.
“The definition of a football game,” he said. “Hard-nosed, coming down to the wire, guys making big plays whenever they need to. Definitely proud of the outcome.”
