During his time as head coach of the Detroit Lions, Matt Patricia seemingly made more ‘enemies' than he did friends and according to Kyle Meinke of MLive, one of those enemies, at least early on, just so happened to be Lions' quarterback, Matthew Stafford.
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In a recent mailbag piece, Meinke was asked a question about whether or not Stafford got along with Patricia, and his response was telling.
From MLive:
Nobody was spared. Not even Matthew Stafford. The veteran, franchise quarterback wasn’t a fan of Patricia’s talking-down style, according to multiple sources in a position to know. I believe there is more to the story, but that’s what I have confirmed and feel comfortable reporting at this time. I don’t think it was a toxic relationship at any point, but there was tension between the coach and his quarterback, period.
Meinke did make sure to mention that Patricia did change his ways after that first season and that his relationship with Stafford was “fine down the stretch.”
And as I’ve written many times, Patricia also softened some over time, wasn’t so toxic with players, and that’s a big reason why guys who weren’t around for 2018 tend to have a higher opinion of Patricia than guys who were. In the end, the Patricia-Stafford relationship was fine down the stretch. It just wasn’t always that way, as it wasn’t for many players.
This comes absolutely no surprise at all to me as I have written about how Stafford has seemed unhappy ever since Patricia took over. In fact, Stafford has already seemed more upbeat and happy now that Patricia is gone.
