Matt Patricia, Lions want no part of ‘Hard Knocks’
The Bill Belichick disciple is selling the idea to Oakland.
Matt Patricia’s first season as an NFL head coach peaked on Sept. 23, when his Detroit Lions held the eventual Super Bowl champion Patriots to 209 yards and 12 first downs on national television, making his first victory one against his former employers.
“Is this fun?” he shouted in the victorious locker room. “This is exactly what we needed, right?”
By year’s end, the Lions were 6-10, their worst season since 2012, and one that led to both a new offensive coordinator and Detroit not ruling out using its No. 8 pick in the draft on a new quarterback.
It also left Detroit eligible to be the subject of next season’s run of HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks,’ the all-access look at the NFL through the lens of one team during training camp. And Patricia, who was reportedly late to team meetings in his first season and had a somewhat adversarial relationship with the local media, wants no part of it.
“I think Jon Gruden is an excellent choice for that show,” Patricia told season ticket holders on Monday. “I think the Oakland Raiders and everything they’ve got going on right now would be fantastic viewing for everybody to watch.”
Because of such reticence about throwing open the doors to the outside world, the NFL introduced rules in 2013 by which they can force teams to participate on the show. The Lions are one of five that meet all three requirements: They’ve failed to make the playoffs each of the last two years, they haven’t been on the show in the past 10 years, and they don’t have a first-year head coach. Oakland does as well, as do San Francisco, Washington, and the N.Y. Giants.
The league hasn’t always had to compel a team to participate: The Rams volunteered two years ago, eager to show off as they began their first season in Los Angeles. Gruden certainly jumps off the page as just the sort of personality who’d relish the spotlight, to say nothing of the drama surrounding where the team will play its last season before heading to Las Vegas, though that list has other potential juicy storylines.
Jimmy Garoppolo’s return to the 49ers after tearing his ACL in September. Odell Beckham Jr. and the Giants, likely transitioning to their next quarterback after Eli Manning. The general disarray of the Redskins, rotting from owner Dan Snyder on down. If anything, Patricia and the always-terrible Lions seem the worst fit for a show that made an icon of Vince Wilfork’s overalls, introduced the world to an undrafted Danny Amendola in 2008, encouraged us all to “go eat a God-damned snack,” and helped Antonio Cromartie remember all of his children.
The Lions aren’t shedding a tear.
“Is it going to be a matter of a win and loss, I’m not sure,” said GM Bob Quinn, perhaps facing the end of his tenure next season. “But we take the stuff that we do behind our doors pretty privately and pretty securely, so that’s something that is definitely a factor.”
More than half the teams featured on ‘Hard Knocks’ missed the playoffs that season, with the 2010 Jets — who reached the AFC Championship game by upsetting the Patriots in Foxborough — by far the most successful.
