Matthew Slater is one of the major voices inside the New England Patriots locker room and he has built up that reputation by being able to resonate with his teammates.

He did just that within a small huddle of them before they took the field for Super Bowl LI by giving the group one heck of a pregame speech.

The theme of it was that each one of them was counted out before, persevered and that effort led them to the pinnacle game in their sport.

"Fellas, as we go out here, man, I want you all think about the story man, your story. [Dion Lewis]. Traded. Cut. [James White]. Couldn't even get on the field your rookie year. [Danny Amendola]. Walk-on. [Julian Edelman]. No position. [Patrick Chung]. Had to go to another team. Come back. Now you're one of the best safeties in the league. Remember the journey fellas. It all led to this."

Want to know everything about your Super Bowl LI champion New England Patriots? Take a second to sign up for our FREE Patriots newsletter!

New England wound up going down by as much as 25 points in that Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons, but similar to how Slater's speech went, they never counted themselves out and ended up making the greatest comeback in NFL history.

Shouldn't be surprising when you think about it. The Patriots are essentially constructed of players who have been counted out, discarded only to rise up and thrive in the league.

For more Patriots news, follow Tyler Sullivan on Twitter: @TylerSully