By Tom E. Curran
FOXBORO - If Matt Patricia's aim is to project a rumpled, football hermit whose sole focus is football and nothing else, he's still got some work to do.
Because currently, he just seems weird.
The Patriots defensive coordinator met with media members Thursday after practice. He approached the small group with his head down and baseball hat pulled low, even with his brow. His gaze never rose from his shoes as questions were posed to him. As he responded, he continued to look at his shoes.
Not a single answer included even a passing detail that might be construed as insightful.
Meanwhile, five feet away, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels held court in the middle of a media scrum and while he wasn't exactly Jimmy Fallon, McDaniels was personable enough and able to converse like a human.
It was a little ironic because McDaniels learned what Patricia probably needs to. That it's better to be yourself than try to channel the personality of your mentor no matter how talented your mentor may be.
But most of the Patriots coordinators who graduate to bigger jobs seem to learn that the hard way. McDaniels. Eric Mangini. Charlie Weis, who was an amalgam of Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. All are smart, engaging and entertaining men who decided they had to go hard-ass to make their points.
Then they ran into issues with players, co-workers andor the media because they were acting like donkeys.
The demon Bill Belichick I hear about from Cleveland is nothing like the guy I've been dealing with for a dozen seasons. Can he be surly, short and contrary. Yes. But he isn't flat-out disrespectful. And while casual interaction with strangers or passing acquaintances isn't something he relishes, he soldiers through it as part of the job. He got the point.
Hopefully, Patricia will too. His players revere him. So too do his fellow coaches. And defensive coordinator for the best team in the NFL is a really important and well-paying job.
Which is good. Because if you can't at least glance at people when you speak to them and cobble together a phrase or two that makes you seem able to interact socially, it's hard to imagine that there are bigger and better things out there for you professionally.
Here's a sampling of Patricia's time with the media on Thursday. Do not read if you need to remain alert.
Q: After one full training camp practice in the books, hows it going?MP: I think its just good to get going. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. Its good to have everybody back and just trying to get better every day. Obviously it was good to be out here practicing.Q: For the rookies, is it that they hit the ground running as hard as they can and you try to get them up to speed, even though theyre swimming with all the information?MP: I think for everybody, we just have to go. Training camp has started, everyone is here and were going as hard as we can across the board to learn and improve every day. Try to learn as much as we can and get better and take it one day at a time.Q: Can you talk about your relationship with Jerod Mayo?MP: Id like to say Im pretty close with all the guys on our team in general, including the coaches. Jerod is an excellent player. Hes a great role model for our team. Hes a leader of our team. But like everybody, hes out here just trying to improve every day and make himself better and obviously were all just trying to make the team better.Q: At the draft, Bill Belichick spoke about the realization that you guys were in sub about 60 to 65 percent of the time and how you guys decided to get some better fits if thats what youre going to do. Is there going to be a lot of tweaking, installation and new stuff going in, despite the fact that theres quite a bit of carryover from last year with coaches and personnel?MP: You know, I think our installation is what it is as far as what were trying to get done. Were just trying to get it in every day and try to look at it and what it looks like and improve it the next day. I think whatever tendencies are in the game league-wide, thats what the league is doing and well try to handle it the best we can. No matter what personnel we have out there, everyone just kind of running they defense that weve got.Q: For the lay person, is it going to look drastically different by the time September rolls around?MP: I dont think you can really give a grand scheme picture of what its going to look like. Its going to be an improving thing every day where were just trying to get better. I think in general, were just going to try to go out and run our defense and evolve it every day.