FOXBOROUGH — It would be easy to say Matthew Slater deserved better.
If this was his final game and final season, and it sure seems like it is, he deserved to play his final days as a New England Patriot on a good team. Matthew Slater the player has been a valuable special teams piece on quite a few of those good Patriots teams.
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But what Slater seemed to understand and even appreciate was that Matthew Slater the leader could be something important to a team like this 2023 Patriots squad.
As good as the 38-year-old, 10-time Pro Bowler was on kick coverages etc., a special team teams player doesn’t evolve into a leader and an icon for an incredibly successful franchise without having something special. The Patriots players and owner Robert Kraft weren’t wearing sweatshirts to honor him because of work he did on the punt team.
He never accepted that being part of a team that wasn’t going to the playoffs was insignificant. The game still mattered. Playing with each other and for each other still mattered even if the initial goal was out of reach.
Slater’s postgame speeches have become part of his legend. He’s long talked about becoming a Christian minister upon retirement. He’s proud and open about his faith without being judgmental and invasive with it. It’s not hard to picture him influencing a congregation because he’s been honing those skills after wins and losses for 16 seasons.
Sunday night might have been his final football sermon. He shared some of what he said.
“For me, I look at life as a race. (St.) Paul talks about it in his writings. 2 Timothy 4:7 says, ‘I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.’ I think, to me, as you’re running your race in life, there’s going to be some ups, some downs. You’re going to fall, you’re going to fail, you’re going to succeed, and you’ve just got to keep running that race,” Slater said. “No matter what the people around you may say – the detractors or naysayers – you keep running that race until you get to the finish line. For these guys in that locker room, yeah, this was a part of the race where we failed. We’ve got to get up, and as an organization, we’ve got to keep running. We’ve got to find a new path – a better path – and keep running that race.”
Brenden Schooler said he’s a better player and person because he’s run this portion on his race alongside Slater.
“I can’t say enough good things about the man. When you play with a guy like him you try to be a sponge and absorb,” Schooler said. “I’ve learned things on the field and off the field. He’s been beneficial in my growth as a man.”
Joe Cardona, the Patriots long snapper who has spent many afternoons in meetings with Slater in their nine years as teammates. He paused to compose himself to talk about his friend.
“What he meant to this organization is immeasurable,” Cardona said. “I count myself lucky that I played with the greatest offensive player of all time (Tom Brady), but I count myself even more lucky that I got to play with the greatest special teams player of all time in Matthew Slater. What he meant to the organization and me personally, I could never repay.”
At the end of that 16th season, Slater lingered on the field after the final horn. He conducted one last prayer huddle with members of both teams. He posed for a few pictures shook several hands and took in the moment around him.
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Before the game he shared an emotional embrace with both his parents and his brother and afterward he returned to the field to take pictures with them and his wife and children. Other than not actually announcing his retirement, he carried himself like a man savoring experiences for the final time.
“I’m just proud to be a part of that group,” Slater said. “Even though the season was what it was, to come here every day and be able to work with those guys, it really meant a lot to me.”
And he meant a lot to them.
“Matthew has spread a lot of messages. Today was a message of never giving up and being a good man, no matter the circumstances and always being resilient,” Cardona said. “Words are one thing, but he lived the example for 16 seasons.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
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