UConn offensive tackle Matt Peart was always meant to be a New York Giant, it seems, with a little New England Patriots flavor thrown in.
Peart was sitting right on the edge of that Giants/Patriots border where you’ll find fans of both teams.
As fate would have it, that’s exactly where he ended up during the 2020 NFL Draft as the Giants, now coached by former Patriots special teams coordinator Joe Judge, selected Peart 99th overall late in Round 3.
Peart’s family moved to the Bronx from Kingston, Jamaica when he was five and his academic and athletic (mainly basketball) abilities earned him scholarship to The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts. It was there he discovered football.
“Going to Governor’s, I remember getting a slip with sports that you could play, and I remember of all of them I wanted to play football,” Peart said in an interview with SI.com. “It had always been on my mind because of watching the Giants … so I pulled the trigger on that.”
Peart did more than just pull the trigger. His ability and physical frame got him recognition as a two-star recruit and, after Governor’s, headed to the University of Connecticut.
At UConn, Peart started all 48 games after redshirting as a freshman. By his senior season, he was a first-team All-American Athletic Conference selection.
Peart, now 6-foot-7 and 320 pounds, reflected back on how Governor’s is responsible for helping him fulfill his football destiny.
“I don’t know what my future would have been if I hadn’t gone to Governor’s Academy,” Peart said. “Mainly because I didn’t know which high school I would have gone to.
“It was a school of about say 400 kids, I was one of three kids that was a Giants fan. Our history teacher was a diehard Patriots fan, and I remember we were cracking jokes about [Super Bowl XVLI] after the whole thing happened, and she threatened my friend and me with a pop quiz.”
But it is Peart’s family, mainly his mother and aunts who served as his teachers early in his life, that he credits the most.
“My family is one of the strongest foundations I have. When I chose to become a football player, they backed me, and they were there for me through the ups and the downs, and that support helped me get to where I am now,” he said.
And where Peart is now is the NFL with the team he grew up rooting for.