FOXBORO, Mass. — When Matthew Slater speaks, his New England Patriots teammates tend to listen. That’s except for when it comes to one thing: that pesky social media.
Slater would advise his younger teammates to stay off of it, especially with training camp on the horizon. But at 33 years old, the special-teams ace is a generation removed from the youngest players on the roster who only know life with what Bill Belichick would refer to as “Instaface.”
“I don’t know how they do it,” Slater said Wednesday. “You won’t catch me dead or alive on that social media. Everybody’s got an opinion. Everyone’s an expert. People have access to you like never before. And that makes it challenging.
“I mean, look, we’re all humans. If you read online that somebody is saying, ‘You stink’ over and over and over again or, ‘Hey, you’re not going to make the team’ over and over and over again, that can play into your mental a little bit. It is tough for those kids. My advice is not to have it, but I don’t know how many of them listen to that advice. We’ll get through it. We’re a family in here. They need to understand that what matters most is what the people in the building think of them.”
Slater once was one of those young kids trying to make his way onto the Patriots roster. As a fifth-round pick in 2008, his older teammates like Ben Watson, Larry Izzo and Tedy Bruschi told Slater not to read the press clippings. Guess what? He ignored the advice.
“And then I was like, ‘Oh, man. I’m getting cut.’ I had to learn to ignore the noise if you will,” Slater said. “I had to learn to enjoy it. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as a young player. I was so stressed about, ‘What’s going to happen? Am I going to be here tomorrow? I messed up on that play.’ I think you need to enjoy it. There’s certainly a lot at stake, but you gotta enjoy it.”
Despite being a team captain in his 12th NFL training camp, Slater still doesn’t view his roster spot as being ensured.
“I just cover kicks,” Slater said. “There’s a lot of me’s out there on the street. So, I’ve got to fight for my spot every year.”
Now, Slater is trying to tell the Patriots’ incoming rookies to do as he says, not as he did.
“Don’t start counting numbers,” Slater said. “Don’t start looking in your room and saying, ‘We’ve got this guy. This guy’s doing that. This guy is going to be there.’ No offense, don’t read what you guys are writing about who’s on the bubble, this guy’s projected roster predictions. I got in that trap as a young player.
“I think you just have to put your head down and try to get better each day. Try to take the coaching that you’re receiving each and every day. Come out and compete and be thankful for the opportunity you have. Be thankful. Look, there are a lot of guys that want to be in our shoes for a chance to compete to be on an NFL roster. So, enjoy the process of competition. Enjoy the process of trying to get better. Because you never know what that opportunity will no longer be there for you.”
