Former UMaine football players remain teammates in motivation for students

By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer

DEXTER — Their professional football careers have taken Mike DeVito and Matt Mulligan in different directions for much of the last decade.

Photo courtesy of Teresa Brzustowicz

THE NFL COMES TO DEXTER — Former University of Maine football standouts Mike DeVito and Matt Mulligan took time out to pose for a photo with members of Dexter Regional High School’s Sports Management class on March 10 following a lunch after the players addressed the Dexter student body. From left are David Kirshkaln, Brayden Miller, Nate Bourdeau, David McKenney, Devito, Mulligan, Zach White, Kolby Kain, Skyler Theodore, Chandler Perkins, Mulligan’s wife, Stephanie Mulligan and Kamden Bell.

But the former teammates at the University of Maine and with the NFL’s New York Jets have remained best friends and teammates in the truest sense.

They train together during the offseason, swapping off workout sessions at DeVito’s home in Hampden and Mulligan’s home in Lincoln to the point that both are considered among the NFL’s strongest players.

They also share a calling as motivational speakers to middle school and high school students around the region, offering a message blending DeVito’s focus on discipline and determination with Mulligan’s exhortation for the youth of Maine not to let a small-town upbringing be anything other than an asset in pursuing big-time dreams.

“The thing that has always impressed me with Matt is that he can come in with no preparation and bring that message across every time, whereas I have to sit down and form it out,” said DeVito, who was born in New York but graduated from Nauset Regional High School in Eastham, Massachusetts.

“This has kind of come together organically just because of the different speaking styles we have, but they complement each other really well and we’ve done it so many times that now we have it down.”

Mulligan estimates he and DeVito have visited 20 to 30 schools since making their first joint appearance before a group of middle-school students in Hampden several years ago.

“We just loved it so much it snowballed from there,” he said.

When students arrived at Guiski Gymnasium on March 10 to hear the 30-minute presentation set up by the sports management class at Dexter Regional High School, the message of hard work and hope resonated.

“One thing I took out of this was Matt describing how he grew up in a small town,” said Dexter junior Zach White. “I live in Exeter, which is probably even smaller, and I’ve been told my entire life — not specifically by family members but by the public — that it’s too small, Maine’s too small, you can’t go where you want to go. I bought into that idea.

“It’s just been recently that I’ve been trying to realize I might be able to make a career in sports broadcasting if I put my mind to it and the message they had today just gives me so much more confidence. The confidence they’ve given me to keep going because you can do it and it’s not where you come from but it’s what you have inside you, that’s the big message I got.”

Profiles in perseverance

That DeVito is approaching his 10th season as an NFL defensive lineman while Mulligan is pursuing his ninth season at tight end is the professional foundation on which their presentations are based.

Neither was drafted after completing his college career at the University of Maine, though DeVito was a two-time all-conference honoree.

Mulligan, meanwhile, grew up in West Enfield and graduated from Penobscot Valley High School in Howland, where he starred in basketball during the winter and played soccer in the fall — the school has no football team.

Mulligan then went to Husson University in Bangor with an eye toward basketball, but he also played football for the first time before transferring to the University of Maine, where he made 23 pass receptions for 268 yards in two seasons.

The 6-foot-3, 305-pound DeVito signed a free agent contract with the New York Jets in 2007 and played there for six seasons before spending the last three years with the Kansas City Chiefs. The 2015 campaign was one of his best, with 19 tackles and three quarterback sacks after DeVito missed nearly the entire 2014 season due to a torn Achilles tendon.

Mulligan’s NFL resume, like his introduction to the sport, has been more circuitous. Since signing his first contract with the Miami Dolphins in 2008, he also has spent time with the Tennessee Titans (twice), New York Jets, St. Louis Rams, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals and last season the Buffalo Bills.

Known as a blocking tight end, the 6-foot-4, 270-pound tight end has 17 catches — two for touchdowns — during his career to date.

Both now are free agents in their early 30s, their immediate football futures unclear until they sign their next contracts. They are using some of the same principles they share with their student audiences to cope with their uncertain job status.

“The most important thing is creating certainty in your life,” said DeVito. “My faith, my wife, my son, they’re always going to be there, that’s the certainty I focus on, and then you let football play itself out. Football is secondary to those other things, so my priorities and intentions are set on those other three things and whatever happens with football is obviously important but it’s not the ultimate thing.”

Mulligan is even more accustomed to the uncertainty, but has displayed considerable staying power while amassing one of the NFL’s larger jersey collections.

He finds the opportunity to use his own professional perseverance as encouragement for the next generation to be a productive and satisfying way to ameliorate any job-related stress — as well as a chance to give back.

“There is a responsibility, I think, when you’re in the limelight and have an opportunity to affect someone’s life to take that very seriously,” said Mulligan. “I was brought up here and the state of Maine formed and shaped me, and now for me to give back in whatever capacity I can is extremely important. It’s something you should want to do, but at the same time I’m indebted and it’s something I should be doing.”

The audiences in Dexter appreciated the message within the gesture.

“It’s great to know that they go way back and know each other from college and still stay friends and that you can have somebody like that in your entire life,” said Dexter senior Kolby Kain. “I really liked how they didn’t talk just about football but about applying this with all of your life and family and your career and not just sports.

“Right now I’m hearing it from my parents that you’re going on to college and your life is starting, and I kind of blow it off because it’s from my parents and I hear it all the time. To hear it from somebody else really hits home.”

Photo courtesy of Teresa Brzustowicz

HARD WORK PAYS OFF — Junior Tyler White addresses the student body at Dexter Regional High School while University of Maine football standouts Mike DeVito, left, and Matt Mulligan look on last week.  The two players shared their stories of perseverance in making it to the National Football League.