Patriots
“This organization is not going to be shackled by its failures this season. We’re going to rise again.”
FOXBOROUGH — Throughout his 16 seasons in Foxborough, it was often Matthew Slater who got the last word in for the Patriots.
At the height of New England’s reign, viewing clips of Slater’s “AWWWWWW YEAH” locker-room declarations became a staple of Patriots fans’ Monday routine, usually after picking up 87-cent Dunkin’ coffee following yet another win.
A special-teams ace whose credentials should warrant a spot in Canton, Slater served as the emotional heartbeat of a Patriots team that stood in stark contrast to the cold, efficient manner in which Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the rest of the team routinely decimated opponents out on the field.
Unfortunately, Slater’s post-game victory speeches have been few and far between during a 2023 season where little has gone right.
But in the immediate aftermath of what figures to be the final game of his lauded NFL career, Slater’s final message to his teammates on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium was still rooted in optimism — both this season and especially the years ahead.
“I look at life as a race. Paul talks about it in his writings,” Slater said of his postgame message following Sunday’s 17-3 loss to the Jets. “2 Timothy 4:7 says, ‘I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.’ And I think, to me, as you’re running your race in life, there’s gonna be some ups, some downs, you’re gonna fall, you’re gonna fail. You’re gonna succeed. You just gotta keep running that race.
“No matter what the people around you might say, the detractors, naysayers, you keep running that race until you get to your finish line. And for these guys in that locker room, yeah, this was then part of the race where we fail. And we gotta get up as an organization and we gotta keep running and we got to find a new path, a better path, and keep running that race.”
A three-time Super Bowl champion during his 16 years in New England, the final stretch of Slater’s career was marked by shortcomings for the Patriots in the post-Brady era.
Over the last four seasons, New England is just 29-38 with just one playoff berth.
Even though Slater did not confirm that Sunday was the last time that he took to the field with his Patriots teammates, the writing has been on the wall over the last week that the 2023 season was the captain’s swan song.
But even with plenty of uncertainty looming over the Patriots this offseason — especially as it pertains to the future of Belichick — Slater believes that the next wave of talent in New England’s locker room is poised to learn from this year’s failings.
“In my opinion, there’s a lot of players on this team that have to learn how to win,” Slater said. “That’s a process for everyone when they come into this league, and if you’re fortunate enough to be in the right place, around the right people, you learn how to do that. Maybe this year was necessary for this team to learn how to win and realize what it takes — the commitment, the sacrifice, the detail. All those things, in order to get to winning.
“And sometimes you have to be broken down to rise again. And it’s my belief that this organization is not going to be shackled by its failures this season. We’re going to rise again. I have a lot of confidence in that, from the ownership all the way down, that we’ll figure it out.”
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