September 10, 2020 | 1:34 PM
After helping the Patriots win two Super Bowls, Kyle Van Noy will be back at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. The only difference is that he now plays for the opposition.
Van Noy, 29, left New England as a free agent following the 2019 season, signing with the Dolphins on a four-year contract worth $51 million ($30 million of which is guaranteed).
The Patriots traded for Van Noy — a 2014 second-round pick — in 2016, acquiring him (and a seventh-round pick) from the Lions for just a sixth-round draft choice.
Once in New England, Van Noy flourished, becoming a defensive leader. He was particularly effective during the 2018 Patriots’ run to the Super Bowl, totaling three sacks and 16 tackles in the three-game postseason.
Yet on Sunday when the Patriots’ 2020 season kicks off at 1 p.m., Van Noy will be playing for an AFC East opponent.
He was asked about the prospect of facing New England’s offensive line, a group he knows well from practices.
“Going against them, they’re familiar with me, I’m familiar with them,” Van Noy told reporters on Wednesday. “I’m excited for this task. They’ve been talking trash the four years I’ve been there, so I’m excited to see if we both can back it up.”
Given the unprecedented circumstances of the the coronavirus pandemic, no fans will be in attendance. Van Noy was asked if that would make it a “surreal experience” to return under such conditions.
“No, I think it’s going to be a cool experience,” Van Noy explained. “I don’t think people are looking at it the way that I’ve been looking at it. I’ve been looking at it as the fans get a close, inside [look] at what guys on the field are communicating, trash-talking. Kind of like what you’ve seen with the NBA, you get to hear the ball dribble and you don’t necessarily get to hear that all of the time. I feel like that’s what it’s going to be like on a football field.”
Asked about his time in New England, Van Noy praised the Patriots and Bill Belichick specifically for choosing to utilize him in a way he felt wasn’t happening in Detroit.
“First off, I had a team put me in the game,” the veteran linebacker said of the Patriots. “That was the biggest difference for me. I went from a team saying they didn’t know what to do with me to a team that knew what to do with me and put me in the game. From top down, it was run a really, really positive way.”
One aspect of facing his former teammates that will remain elusive for Van Noy is the prospect of tackling the player he could never touch in practice.
“He’s not there anymore,” Van Noy joked. “And that would be Gronk by the way, not Tom [Brady]. That’s my guy.”
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