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The Philadelphia Eagles seemed to playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette when they hired Matt Patricia. Darius Slay’s long-standing feud with his former head coach has been documented, debated, and dissected to death.
Head coach Nick Sirianni didn’t seem to care about any of that. He saw a silver lining in adding Patricia to his coaching staff, asking Slay to begin a forced reconciliation for the good of the franchise. Everything’s coming up roses. Slay not only signed off on Patricia’s hiring, but their reunion has been “cordial.” The Pro Bowl cornerback briefly addressed the situation at the Calvin Johnson Jr. Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic.
“It’s another day at the office,” Slay told Jenna Malinowski of the Detroit Free Press. “We both got the same goal, just going out there to compete and win a championship, so that’s the main focus.”
Slay was at Johnson’s charity event — held at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, just outside Detroit — to support his good friend and former Lions teammate. The 32-year-old has often brought Johnson up in press conferences, including this fun anecdote from Slay’s rookie season in Detroit.
“My rookie year I ain’t knock a ball down from him,” Slay said in 2021. “He was destroying me every day so he made my confidence even more higher than it was already, just the fact that it was already hard to stop him and then getting caught on every day in practice was pretty bad.”
Slay-Patricia Feud Started with 2018 Incident
There were actually two incidents in 2018 that incited the feud between Darius Slay and Matt Patricia. One was a private meeting between coach and cornerback where Slay walked away feeling disrespected. He composed himself and moved on. However, the second one stuck with Slay like glue since it happened in a team meeting. Everyone saw and heard the venom Patricia fired at him. Here is how the Detroit Free Press relayed the story:
Slay, a three-time Pro Bowler, told the Free Press on Thursday that his lack of respect for Patricia stems from an incident that happened in training camp during Patricia’s first season as Lions coach in 2018.
“He told me in front of the whole team, in the team meeting room, showed clips of me in practice getting a ball caught on me or so in practice,” Slay said. “I posted a picture (of a wide receiver on social media), and he told me, stop sucking this man’s private. So I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ I’m like, ‘Hold up.’ Where I’m from, that don’t fly. Cause I wouldn’t say that to him. I wouldn’t say to him to stop you know what to Bill Belichick. I wouldn’t do that. That’s just not me as a man. That’s disrespectful to me and so from there on it was done with.”
Nick Sirianni Says Everything Was Discussed
Head coach Nick Sirianni quickly shot down rumors of any lingering beef between Slay and Patricia before the Eagles announced the move. The two men talked everything out, with Slay green-lighting the decision to make Patricia the team’s new senior defensive consultant.
“Like you do with anything, you go through and you talk to guys and make sure everybody is comfortable with it,” Sirianni told reporters on April 20. “I had conversations with Slay; obviously had conversations with Coach Patricia. I know that it will be a good working relationship for us when that happens.”
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