The Lions are 3-4 and just traded away a popular and productive player.
So naturally, coach Matt Patricia decided today was the day to critique a reporter’s posture.
Via the Detroit Free Press, Patricia snapped at a reporter who asked about the Golden Tate trade.
Upon being asked how the deal made the team better, a clearly flustered Patricia replied: “Ah, well, you know. Do me a favor just kinda sit up, just like, have a little respect for the process. Every day you come and ask me questions and you’re just kinda like you know, ‘gimme this.’ ”
After asking the reporter “just to be a little respectful in this whole process,” he requested that he “ask me a question professionally and I’ll answer it for you.”
Then Patricia talked around trading a current producer for a team on the fringe of the playoff hunt for future assets.
It’s was an unnecessary move for Patricia, and it clearly wasn’t about someone slouching. Coaches (like reporters) are human beings, and minor frustrations build over time, and eventually a simmer can become a boil.
Honeymoons eventually run out for any new hire, and Patricia’s starting to feel the sting of some criticism for the first time — because he didn’t when he was a Patriots wonderkid/rocket scientist, when the stories were all positive. The fact he shows up for work looking like a hairy laundry hamper with a pencil sticking out of the top of it isn’t even germane to the discussion, but his reaction before he reaches his first November as a head coach isn’t a good look.