Ex-Alabama player 'living the life' as Super Bowl approaches

Former University of Alabama offensive tackle Wesley Britt calls it quite the trifecta.

He’s soon to be married to Katie Boyd, the former Student Government Association president at Alabama, and Sunday he’ll be playing in the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots when they go for football immortality and the perfect 19-0 season.

Topping it off is that his mother, Vera, who sustained a life-threatening head injury after falling from a golf cart following the Crimson Tide’s homecoming victory against Houston on Oct. 6, will be there for the game against the New York Giants.

“It’s really neat for her to be here,” Britt said. “First of all just for her to be able to travel, to go to Arizona and watch a Super Bowl, it’s really a great thing.

“It makes it that much more special knowing that she’ll be there.”

Britt says he’s “living the life,” and it would be hard to argue with him even though the 26-year-old could just as easily end up watching Super Bowl XLII from the sideline in street clothes as starting.

In terms of the depth chart, No. 65 is listed as Matt Light’s backup at left tackle, but he spent most of this past season being inactive on Sundays (FYI, according to NFL rules, the roster limit is 53 players, of which only 45 can be active for a game). That began to change against the New York Jets on Dec. 16, when the 6-foot-8, 320-pound second-year player took several snaps as an eligible receiver at tight end.

He did the same a week later in short-yardage and goal-line situations against the Miami Dolphins, and in the season finale against the Giants started when the Patriots opened with a two tight end set.

Naturally, Britt’s tried to talk quarterback Tom Brady into throwing him “the rock,” and Alabama has a pretty good history of tackles scoring big touchdowns.

“With Coach [Mike] Shula there we actually had a tackle-eligible play but we never got to run it,” he said. “I’ve been playing organized football since second grade and I’ve never had a touchdown. That would be pretty neat.

“Like Coach Bryant used to say, when you score a touchdown act like you’ve been there before. I’ve never been there before. I’m not sure I would know how to act.”

That wouldn’t be the first time this week. On Tuesday, players attended Super Bowl Media Day, where for a hectic hour they answered questions from scores of reporters, many of whom were representing the likes of “Entertainment Tonight” and MTV.

“People that weren’t too interested in the Xs and the Os of football,” Britt said. “The crazy stuff they’d ask. They’d ask you things like to predict the school. What football player, especially with us, is going to predict the score? There were people from Germany asking me to read things in German to their audience for the introductions to the Super Bowl, and there was Spanish television.”

Britt saw the woman in the wedding dress in search of a potential husband, but the strangest request he received was from a foreign female reporter who not only wanted to see a demonstration of a tackle, but asked Britt to tackle her.

“It’s nothing personal, but no thank you,” he said.

Otherwise, Britt, like so many others, is just anxious for Sunday to get here. There’s only so much hype and preparation a person can take, and even though he has family members on hand he’s ready for kickoff to arrive.

In addition to his mother, father and fiancé, brother Justin, a guard on last year’s Crimson Tide, rounds out the Britt contingency in Phoenix. The three other brothers and sisters have all either just had a baby, or one’s on the way, and couldn’t make the trip.

“We’re trying to get Alabama some more football players,” he said with a laugh.

Reach Christopher Walsh at Christopher.walsh@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0196.