After the post-Super Bowl madness began to settle down, Jason McCourty had a simple question for his agent.

“Do I need to make an announcement that I’m not retiring?” McCourty asked. “I never said it, but because Dev said it? I don’t know?”

Truth is, Jason McCourty, who was responsible for the defining play of Super Bowl LIII, never had any intentions of going out on top. And despite what Devin McCourty said leading up to the Super Bowl, Jason was confident his brother wasn’t going anywhere, either.

The only question was where Jason would be playing in 2019. He became an unrestricted free agent at the beginning of the new league year.

“There’s always the business side of it,” Jason McCourty said yesterday at the Massachusetts State House, where he testified in support of a bill that would overhaul educational funding in the state. “I knew the (coaching) staff wanted me back. I knew I wanted to be back. It was just a matter of making sure that we could work out the business side of it.”

McCourty re-signed with the Patriots on a two-year deal worth $11 million earlier this month. He’ll join Stephon Gilmore, J.C. Jackson, Jonathan Jones (who was offered a contract as a restricted free agent), Duke Dawson, and Keion Crossen in a loaded cornerbacks group.

When McCourty was traded from the Browns to the Patriots a year ago, he had no idea how long he’d be playing in New England. And when he was on the field in the fourth preseason game against the Giants, aligning as a safety, he was far from certain that he’d even make it to Week 1.

“As I looked at my journey, obviously my wife becomes my sounding board throughout the ups and downs of the season, and as we were going back and reviewing the year, we talked about how crazy it’s been,” McCourty said. “It was like a roller-coaster ride for me…Playing in the fourth preseason game, barely played at the beginning of the season. Start one game, third corner one game. Just moving all around and playing all the necessary roles. . . . I just embraced the role of ‘Hey, whether I’m going to play outside corner, slot corner, safety, whatever it is, I’m willing to learn it and do it to the best of my ability.’ I really enjoyed that challenge of that.”

As well as McCourty played throughout the 2018 season, he knew the possibility existed that he’d be one-and-done. After all, most players who arrive in McCourty’s situation — a veteran acquired via trade and entering the final year of his contract — do not end up receiving a new deal from the Pats. That was the case with Trent Brown, Cordarrelle Patterson and possibly Danny Shelton (who remains unsigned). McCourty was the exception.

“When you get to 31 in this league, I look at every year as one year and the fact that you don’t know if you want to play next year,” McCourty said. “One year and you don’t know if they’re going to want you back next year. As you get older, the game changes. You see in free agency, the (money) pouring into the 25-, 26-year-old guys to build for the future. You understand that. I remember being that 25-year-old guy signing an extension and being ecstatic. You realize as you get older it’s a blessing to continue to compete and play.”

He’s glad to keep doing it New England.

“I was just happy that the process brought me back here and that I get a chance to compete with these guys for another year, another two more years with my brother and everybody in that locker room,” McCourty said.