Super Bowl LII: Kyle Van Noy calls trade from Lions to Patriots 'a blessing’

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The first thing linebacker Kyle Van Noy thought when he was told in late October he’d been traded from the Lions to the Patriots?

“The first thing you think of is what you did wrong,” said Van Noy, Detroit’s second-round pick out of BYU in 2014. “I wasn’t very happy at first. There’s a lot of things where I wasn’t happy about it.”

And now?

“I got to New England, and what a blessing,” he said. “My teammates, the coaches, they helped me get up to speed. I remember days I was in there [at the practice facility] at 5:30 in the morning and didn’t leave until 10 at night.”

Van Noy no longer looks back with regret at the trade. Instead, it’s the best thing that could have happened. He’s one win away from winning the Super Bowl in the same season his old Lions team failed to reach the playoffs.

“The [good] things I did in Detroit, I carried over in New England, and it helped me be successful,” said Van Noy, who is now a key starter at inside linebacker. “I kept that same regimen. For me, it was remarkable to have a group of guys [in New England] that rallied around me to get to be on the same page as them and continue to play football at a high level.”

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”