THERE’S A LOT TO SAY ABOUT MATTHEW SLATER, AN ALL-TIME GREAT IN HIS FOOTBALL SPECIALTY, AND, FOR ME, ONE THING I WISH WENT UNSAID.
Open your mouth to a live microphone for three unscripted hours at a time, trying to instantly frame the unpredictable action of an NFL game unfolding before you, and there are bound to be a few words and phrases you’d like to have back at the end of the day.
Add up mostly Sundays and a few weeknights per year over 11 seasons and, at least for this New England Patriots announcer, lines you wish you could rewind and re-word are too numerous to rue.
Except for one, spoken on Sept. 29, 2019.
The Patriots were in Orchard Park, N.Y., leading Buffalo, 6–0, on a cloudy and cool afternoon, as the Bills set up to punt from their 33-yard line midway through the first quarter. Poised for an all-out rush, the Pats stacked 10 players in tight, including Matthew Slater tucked well inside of J.C. Jackson on the right edge.
Fourteen yards away, Buffalo’s Corey Bojorquez, who began his career in New England, caught a low snap inches below his knee caps. Righting himself, he took two steps and dropped the ball onto his left instep, just as Jackson instantaneously extended his arms.
There was a loud thud. The ball popped high in the air before plummeting to the Bills’ 11, on the field’s far side. It bounced straight up to Slater, who in a singular act plucked it, carried it across the goal line and held it in his outstretched right hand while dropping to his knees.
Given a clear view of Jackson, I saw the block correctly. But the score I botched. Seeing the “8” of Slater’s “18” as a zero, to my unending regret, I blurted out the name of №10, Josh Gordon.
The word bubble barely off my tongue, I realized it was Slater in the end zone; Gordon wasn’t even on the field. The error of my words hit me with the bluntness of Jackson’s block. Thud!
“Make it Matthew Slater,” I uttered a split second later, sinking where I stood in our booth. “Matthew Slater with the recovery and the score.”
Leaving out an exclamation mark, I barely punctuated the play with a period.
It was the first, and would turn out to be the only touchdown in the brilliant career of the Patriot I most respected then, as now. If ever there was someone whose milestone merited a clean call, it was Slater, whose suffix, to hear coaches and teammates sing his praises, might as well be: Great player. Better person.
The following day, I encountered him in the Patriots locker room, back home in Foxborough, Mass. I apologized for my gaffe, and was received with a smile. No need to feel bad, he assured, gently shaking his head.
Still, it bothers me now, as then. Maybe more, knowing there won’t be another opportunity to nail the call of a score by Slater. At age 38, after 16 seasons as a Patriot, including 13 as a captain and 10 as a Pro Bowler, and with his one career touchdown, Matthew retired.
Expectation became official
Following a lopsided 2021 Wild Card playoff loss at Buffalo, Slater joined veteran teammate Devin McCourty in opting to play one more year. At least. When another loss at Buffalo in the 2022 finale kept the Pats out of the postseason, even as McCourty stepped aside, Slater committed to one more year. Again. But as the 2023 season spiraled toward a disastrous four-win, 13-loss end, it was obvious there’d be no ‘one more year’ for the three-time Super Bowl champ.
One such sign was in November on the Pats’ trip to Frankfurt, Germany, where Matthew was joined by wife Shahrzad and their family. Sleep deprived on the morning of arrival thousands of miles from home, he was nonetheless in his element: a husband and father doting on four little kids over a hotel breakfast.
More signs appeared en route to January’s season-ender vs. the Jets. For days leading up to the game, Slater repeatedly obliged team and media requests, reflective and relaxed. A year removed from pushing away from a podium in Buffalo, teary eyed, emotional and uncertain of his future, he seemed at peace.
On game day, teammates stepped into a Nor’easter for warmups wearing special sweatshirts in his honor. Navy blue, with red and white lettering, they read “The Patriot” across the front. “Captain,” they said, above an “18” on the back. And on the left shoulder, in perfect order: “SON, FATHER, HUSBAND, TEAMMATE,” along with a list of career achievements.
Shortly before kickoff, the Slaters reunited there on the field. Matthew embraced his parents, Jackie and Annie, and brother David. Shahrzad and the kids cheered him on in their own “18” jerseys.
We’d later learn from a team-produced video that word was getting around, even among New York players. Slater confirmed to Jets contemporaries Thomas Morstead, 37, in his 15th season, and Aaron Rodgers, 40, in his 19th: this was it.
Three hours later, the snowy, slushy end to Slater’s 239th game — 264th, if you count playoffs — was marked by mutual admiration. Helmet off, he lingered on the field, heading toward the Northeast opening of Gillette Stadium as remaining fans offered a collective salute.
Slater returned it by raising his right hand, just as he did years earlier in the Bills end zone. Only this time, his extended right thumb, index and pinky fingers formed an offering of his love in sign language.
In recent years, I’ve listened to a handful of special teams coordinators around the league pay tribute to Slater, having watched him mature from unsure rookie to master craftsman. Among them, Dave Fipp of the Detroit Lions, once penned his respect for Slater, writing a personal letter of congratulations the first time Matthew made the Pro Bowl.
No special teamer reached more, which may be why a another, John Bonamego, who coordinated kicking units for 19 NFL seasons, more recently called Slater “a first-ballot Hall of Famer.” Bonamego won’t get much of an argument from his peers. Nor from me.
A Patriots Hall of Fame blazer for Slater is all but guaranteed. A Pro Football Hall of Fame jacket like the one his dad Jackie got as a legendary offensive tackle, is hardly a given. But here’s hoping this year’s selection of returner Devin Hester gets Matthew one too. Because nobody covered returners as well, for as long as he did.
Not that a clothing item — in Foxborough red or Canton gold — makes the man who finds validation in faith, family, relationships to others (in and out of the game) and community service. Humility was “a core value of our home,” Slater told me last spring, stressing that Jackie and Annie also imbued in their sons the importance of blending a strong sense of self with keen self-awareness.
That balance helps explain the player Matthew became, as a post-high school athlete generally devoid of an offensive or defensive position. At UCLA and in the NFL, Slater was mostly rostered as a receiver. He concluded his career with one catch (for the Pats in 2011) and four carries (including two as a Bruin and netting five yards overall).
Adept at returning kickoffs in college, Slater struggled as a pro. Ask him about it, and in typical self-deprecating manner, he laughingly labels himself “a bust.”
Obviously, Slater found a way to hold his place, regardless of listed position. Drafted by Bill Belichick as a fifth-rounder in 2008, he was determined to “become the best (kick) coverage player that (he) could be.”
Belichick has called him the best ever, a special teams equal to Tom Brady on offense and Lawrence Taylor on defense.
Tireless and egoless
On the Wednesday after returning from Frankfurt, the Pats held a practice before dispersing for a bye weekend. And as the doors to the locker room closed on an ensuing media availability, one player remained: Slater.
Of course. Still in workout gear; headed to the weight room. Sixteen seasons in; no different than his younger self, who former special teams coach Scott O’Brien described as a guy who shows up everyday like he might get cut that day.
Football’s so-called Turk never ran down Slater. Tuesday the ‘gunner’ opponents couldn’t keep down despite double and often triple teams, did what few in his unforgiving game can: he stopped running on his terms.
“It is time,” he told us in a statement through the team, “for (his) relationship with the game to evolve.”
As a player, Slater was an exemplar: of his specialty, of leadership, of the Patriots’ culture when at their best. On and off the field. In the football facility and community.
Slater was also an eloquent voice: for teammates, for the team, for special teams and for others whose stories need to be told. However his relationship with the game evolves, one expects he’ll keep advocating for all of the above.
In turn, there’s so much to say about Slater. And for me, there will always be one thing I wish had gone unsaid.
This is an updated version of an article originally published at www.985thesportshub.com. Bob Socci has been the New England Patriots radio broadcaster since 2013.
BOB SOCCI 