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  • New England defensive back Sterling Moore knocked the ball out of Baltimore wide receiver Leigh Evans’ hands to prevent a touchdown that would have won the AFC Championship for the Ravens. File photo / The Associated Press

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February 2, 2012

Moore an unlikely hero for Patriots

By George Bremer The Herald Bulletin

INDIANAPOLIS — The man who kept the New England Patriots’ fifth Super Bowl drive alive is far from a household name.

But he was selling household appliances not so long ago.

With one monumental pass breakup late in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game, rookie defensive back Sterling Moore vaulted from obscurity to a permanent place in the franchise’s storied playoff history.

And he’s still making the league minimum.

Best buy, indeed.

“It was about four years ago I was working at Best Buy and playing junior college football at the same time,” Moore said during Tuesday’s Super Bowl XLVI Media Day.

“Four years have gone by fast. It’s been a long road, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

Undrafted out of SMU, Moore has been released four times this season —including twice by the Patriots.

He waited impatiently for the NFL lockout to end and signed with the Oakland Raiders, only to be released during the final cut of training camp.

He was signed Sept. 4 to the Oakland practice squad and let go again 22 days later.

During moments like that, a man finds out who his true friends are, and Moore found solace in a familiar face.

“I called (SMU) Coach (June) Jones as soon as I got cut, and he told me not to worry about it and that I was good enough to play in this league,” Moore said. “I’m sure he put some calls out, which has something to do with me being here. All I needed was an opportunity.”

He never imagined that opportunity would come with the Patriots.

There’s a continent between Oakland, Calif., and Foxborough, Mass., after all.

“I had a good preseason,” Moore said, “but I didn’t know what they had seen.”

Apparently, enough. But Moore’s crazy ride was just beginning.

New England signed him to the practice squad on Oct. 5, then cut him and re-signed him twice more through Dec. 23. He somehow managed to appear in six regular-season games, with three starts, and compile seven tackles and two interceptions.

He showed enough to make the playoff roster and now serves as a shining example of “The Patriot Way.” New England coach Bill Belichick has long made a habit of piecing together successful units with players who previously have been discarded by the system.

“I think it really is a credit to those players,” Belichick said. “They have come in and worked hard. They aren’t big-name, high-profile guys coming in, but they have outworked and outcompeted who they are competing against for those roster spots and that playing time. Big credit to those guys. It’s not how you get to the Patriots, it’s what you do when you get there.”

What Moore had done was unremarkable until the AFC title game against the Baltimore Ravens.

He appeared in both postseason wins, with four tackles and four pass deflections. But his play against Ravens wide receiver Lee Evans late in the fourth quarter put his name in the national media.

Evans ran a back-shoulder fade to the corner of the end zone, and Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco dropped in what appeared to be a perfect pass.

Moore closed quickly and arrived at almost the same time as the ball. As Evans attempted to control the pass and establish both feet in the end zone, Moore made a desperate swipe to knock the ball out.

Moore’s timing was tremendous, jarring the ball loose at the final instant, but he first believed he had failed.

“I didn’t know I hit the ball,” he said, noting he attempted a second swipe just in case. “I thought he had scored the touchdown, and I thought we had lost. So it was a couple seconds later when I saw the ball on the ground.”

Moore said the Patriots work on a drill similar to that play every week, and he was just relying on his technique.

He quickly deflects any credit for saving the game, pointing to a drive-killing interception by linebacker Brandon Spikes and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork’s play throughout the game as proof he was far from alone.

Still, his big play will give Moore a sort of immortality in New England.

But he doesn’t understand what all the hoopla is about.

“Everybody else is tweeting me and texting me that I’m going to go down history for that play,” Moore said. “But we have another big game on Sunday. So if I come out here and screw this game up, it means nothing.”

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