Matthew Slater Set For New Role With Patriots

Matthew Slater may be done playing football, but it appears he’ll still have a presence with the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

Slater was captured in a snapshot by the team with a bible in his hand as players returned for voluntary workouts on Monday, and according to Jabril Peppers, Slater will be around as an “advisor” to the club.

The former Patriot spoke to the Boston Globe’s Christopher Price over the weekend in a recent podcast, and during the interview it sounded like Slater was interested in potentially remaining around the team in Foxboro.  He revealed that bit of information when Price mentioned that he spoke to his former teammate, Kevin O’Connell, back at the scouting combine, about his thoughts on new Patriots head coach, Jerod Mayo.  However, O’Connell, on his own accord, apparently offered up that he felt Slater might also be a great future head coach.

Slater said that while he didn’t have a desire to be a head coach, he did hint that he had hoped to have a future role in some form with the team.

“Look, I love the game of football.  I love everything that it entails and as I transition into this next phase of my life, certainly, I’d love to be involved how ever I can in a way that makes sense for my family and I,” said Slater.  “But I think about culture building, pouring into young men, and sharing the experience that I had as a player with the next generation.  Now, that may not be as a coach.  I’m not aspiring to be a head coach like those two guys, but maybe that’s as a member of a staff or in some type of supportive role.  So I’m very much open to that, and we’ll just see what the future holds.”

Apparently, now we know.

Slater was at LEGOLAND in New York over the weekend with his family for the “Pros of Play’ initiative, joining Giants receiver Parris Cambell Jr. and Eagles defensive end, Brandon Graham.  The goal with that initiative was to invite parents to commit to spending their time off with their families this summer, with the hope to obviously get them to spend it at the park.