Getty Matt Patricia during the Tampa Bay game.
Like everyone else, folks associated with the Detroit Lions have been adjusting to life during a pandemic, and that means finding time to do some new things.
For Matt Patricia, it’s meant playing more with his kids and also taking up a hobby. It’s not a new sport but an instrument, however. Patricia told reporters this week that he has taken up the ukulele and been playing during the quarantine and his time away from the team.
During a video chat session with reporters, Patricia even showed off the instrument and explained how he’s been learning on the go playing some tunes. WXYZ’s Brad Galli showed off a closer look at Patricia’s newest hobby.
Matt Patricia is running the Lions offseason program from home.
He’s also playing Barbies with his daughter, and showed off his ukulele.
“I may call them songs, you would call them noise. So we’ll probably just leave it at that,” Patricia told reporters with a laugh. “I’m playing a lot of Barbies right now too. When my 4 year old daughter asks me to play, it’s really hard to turn her down.”
Patricia, along with general manager Bob Quinn, has maintained that the new normal has actually been good for the home and family life and caused the team leaders to re-think their often packed schedules this time of year during the offseason.
To that end, it’s been special to see the impact of the quarantine on the people in the league and their families. Typically, it’s hard to view folks like Patricia and Quinn in a human light because they are all about the business of football, but it’s been fun to get to know the men and the families in the meantime.
Perhaps Patricia will play the ukulele after a big Lions playoff win in the future. Fans would love to see it, no matter how much “noise” it might create.
Matt Patricia’s Lions Tenure
Patricia came to the Lions fresh off success in New England in 2018, and struggled out of the gate to capture the attention of the locker room. A bumpy start paved the way to a more solid finish in 2018 with the team only winning six games, but defeating squads like the New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers, which offered hope.
Patricia has helped the Lions stay in games for the most part in 2019, something which the team struggled with in 2018, but has not gotten them over the hump at closing. That’s perhaps his biggest wart so far as a boss, combined with a lousy defense that has not picked up the program whatsoever. Patricia might get more of a pass considering the absurd amount of injuries he’s dealt with, but it’s hard to ignore that in his tenure as coach, the Lions have had the same discipline problems plague them that always have through the years.
The bet was that both Patricia and Quinn get a mulligan on 2019 considering the rash of injuries that have set the team back, while also living with the understanding that 2020 is likely the make or break year for this group.
It might not be what Lions fans wanted to hear, but it always seemed like the likely outcome. Now that Patricia is back in the mix, the Lions will roll into the season with him as boss, new hobbies and all.
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