Following is an article By TIM HAYES of the Bristol Herald Courier (3/3/2002) on former Richlands star, Mike Compton, a Super Bowl Champion after nine years
For eight seasons, the residents of Richlands would gather around their television sets on Thanksgiving Day to watch former Richlands High School standout Mike Compton suit up as a member of the Detriot Lions.
However, this season the people from Compton's hometown got to see him in the big show.
After signing with the New England Patriots in April, Compton started all 16 games for the Patriots at left guard and helped guide them to their improbable Super Bowl XXXIV victory over the St. Louis Rams in the New Orleans Superdome. Despite becoming the firrst player to win a Super Bowl Championship from Southwest Virginia, since Carroll Dale took the field for the Green Bay Packers in the first two Super Bowl's, it has been business as usual for Compton since returning home.
"It's been the normal routine. I'm moving into a new house I had remodeled. I don't think it has really sunk in yet," Compton said. "Every now and then I'll get excited, especially during those TV commercials for a Sports Illustrated subscription. Maybe it will sink completely in when I get that ring and get to put it on."
Perhaps no team in NFL history has endured so much over the course of the season as the Patriots did. They overcame a so-called quarterback controversy during Super Bowl week, a playoff game played in a near-blizzard and being 14-point underdogs to the Rams in the Super Bowl. Compton relished the underdog role.
"We didn't have to be underdogs to get motivated, we knew we were going to be underdogs, because we were underdogs the whole year," Compton said. "Even the first game of the year, against Cincinatti, we were underdogs."
Perhaps it wasn't a surprise that many doubted the Pats as they stumbled to a 3-4 start and lost starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe to an injury during the second game of the season. That left second-year quarterback Tom Brady to fill the void. All the former University of Michigan standout did was have one of the most prolific seasons by a quaterback in recent memory and earn Super Bowl MVP honors. Compton was impressed.
"I think he had one of those years like Kurt Warner had," Compton said of Brady. "He went from backup to Super Bowl MVP. He'll probably write a book like Kurt Warner too. Tom's a young guy and brings a lot of enthusiasm. He's a true professional; even before he got his feet wet starting. His routine never changed from the beginning of training camp to the end of Super Bowl.
"His potential leaves his limitations far behind. I think he has unlimited potential. Tom Brady's biggest expectations on him next year will be how well he does this coming year, after leading the team to the Super Bowl championship. I think next year will be the story on Tom Brady."
Brady wasn't the lone young star on the Patriots roster. The 31-year-old Compton was the oldest member of New England's line, which also featured youngsters Matt Light, Damien Woody and Greg Robinson-Randall.
"I think it's right up there with the best lines I have ever been on, including the one in Detroit that helped Barry Sanders rush for 2,000 yards," said Compton, who would often switch to the center position when New England ran plays from the shotgun formation. "Just like Tom Brady, the young guys on this line have unlimited potential. It was also a good mesh for me, as far as my experience and there youth. It sort of worked for each other.
"I got sort of revitalized because they were young guys and I helped them come along with certain things that I had picked up over the years from veterans that I had been under."
Compton's Super Bowl odyssey began on March 1, 2001 when he became a free agent. He had spent eight years with Detroit and had been part of several milestones. In 1997, he started every game on an offensive line that helped Sanders become just the third player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards. However, Compton wasn't in new Detriot president Matt Millen's future plans.
"They brought in Matt Millen as general manager and for some reason the organization decided they didn't want to sign myself or Jeff Hartings to a contract," Compton said. "We had been the two most stable linemen since we had been there. They never called ... Obviously Matt Millen has no clue about how to run a football team and I am just fortunate I got out of there when I did."
Enter New England.
The Patriots were the first team to offer Compton a contract and he became part of a major offseason overhaul by the Pats' that saw the signing of 17 free agents.
"New England was the first one to call me and I went up there on a visit and felt comfortable and really liked it," Compton said. "Foxboro, Mass. is a small town and there is not a lot to do there and it reminded me of Richlands. It was hard leaving Detroit, because I thought I would be a Lion for 10 years or more.
"In hindsight I guess I look like a genius for signing with them. It turned out to be a good choice." Compton realized how good of a choice it was, when he arrived for the Patriots' training camp.
"When I signed with them in March, I thought they could be a playoff contender," Compton said. "We had played them in 2000 and beat them on Thanksgiving day, and I had seen how good they were. But when I got here I never expected for this team to get in the Super Bowl this soon."
Compton also enjoyed the no-nonsense style of New England coach Bill Belichick. "He's a very good coach. He's a very routine and systematic type of coach," Compton said. "He's not the kind of guy that is going to scream and yell. He's honest and up front and so was his coaching staff and that was one of the things I liked. You could be face to face with him and pardon my language, but he's not going to bullshit you."
After enduring the 3-4 start, the Patriots won eight of their final nine games. Compton and the rest of the line corps helped New England running back Antowain Smith pass the 1,000-yard mark.
The playoffs were just as unpredictable as the Patriots season. They opened the postseason with a 16-13 win over the Oakland Raiders in Foxboro in a game marred by snow that fell the entire game.
"I've played in a lot of cold weather games but I have never played in something like that," Compton said. "It was definitely a first. It wasn't as bad as it looked, but toward the end of the game the temperature started dropping, the ground started freezing and it got pretty hard to keep your footing and move around.
"But it was like a little kid's dream to play a big game like that, out in the snow, in January and to top it off, against the Raiders."
New England defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-17 the following week in the AFC Championship thanks to late heroics from Bledsoe, who was subbing for an injured Brady.
They say that Super Bowl week is the most hectic week for any athlete to endure in any sport. It was even more so for the Patriots. Bledsoe's antics in the AFC Championship brought on questions of whether he would get the nod in Super Bowl XXXIV over Brady, who had led the Patriots all season. It was never a problem, according to Compton.
"The quarterback controversy was made more by the media," Compton said. "The bottom line was that if Tom was healthy enough he would go. If he wasn't healthy enough, Drew would go. The media blew it way out of proportion. I don't think it was a factor or a concern for the New England Patriots players or the organization."
Another constant question that arose was the Rams' 14-point cushion given by the odds makers. Behind the play of Warner, the Rams had steamrolled through the league and featured one of the game's top offensive players ever in running back Marshall Faulk. But according to Compton it all came down to one word for the Patriots: Team.
"People made a big deal out of the introduction at the Super Bowl when we were introduced as a team. We had been doing that ever since the second or third game of the year," Compton said. "We were just a bunch of hard-working guys and our mentality was that if we stay together as a team and work hard for 60 minutes, whatever happens is going to happen."
That idea worked to perfection as New England shocked the world by jumping out to a 17-3 lead. However the Rams would rally back to tie the game at 17 with 1:31 left in the fourth quarter.
But New England would make one of the most impressive drives in Super Bowl history and get in field goal range for kicker Adam Vinatieri. Vinatieri connected on the 48-yard field goal to pick up the win.
Compton witnessed it all.
"I was the right guard on the play. The right guard on the kickoff team had hurt his back like two field goals earlier," Compton said. "I just got in my stance and told myself, `Make sure this guy doesn't get around you and stay low and don't let this thing get blocked.' When the ball was snapped I stepped down behind the center and the guy tried to come over me and I just ended up cutting his legs and then there was a big pile.
"When I first got to where I could see it go through until it already hit the net and started dropping down. I happened to see somebody in the stands, right about field goal post level in a New England jersey start jumping up an down. I wear a tinted visor that protects me because I have light sensitive eyes. It was all sweaty and fogged up and I happened to peak under it and see the ball fall on the ground. I just took my helmet off and ran halfway down the field and just squatted down. It was an unbelievable feeling."
The win was even more sweet for Compton, considering he had never even won a playoff game during his eight seasons with the Lions.
"You always say you want to play for a Super Bowl and win a Super Bowl," Compton said. "Even though you say that, there is always a voice in the back of your head that tells you that you will never be that lucky or never get on a team good enough to get there. It was just an unbelievable feeling and I can't describe it."
Since the Super Bowl hysteria ended, Compton has returned to his Richlands home. While most professional athletes make their homes in the cities in which they are employed, Compton hasn't forgotten his roots.
"I knew there are a lot of things out there that are probably more exciting and there are places with a lot more to do and see and I would like my kids to see that, but I also want them to enjoy some of the experiences I had growing up in Richlands," said Compton, who had three children - Jessica, Joshua and Sarah. "Richlands is a small town and everybody knows everybody. It's a safe place that I call home and hopefully I will call home for a long time."
As for the future, Compton still has two more years left on his contract with the Patriots. For now, he is content with being a hometown hero.
"My goal when I started playing professional football was to make 10 years in the league," Compton said. "I still plan to honor my contract with the Patriots and after the 2003 seasons I will sit down with my wife and three kids and talk about it. My oldest daughter will be getting ready to go into high school and I would like to be there for her.
"I always wanted a Super Bowl ring. I got that, so now I'm just taking everything on a day-to-day and year-to-year basis."
