Matt Patricia: We’ll move conversation back to football when team wants to move

[Roary]

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Lions head coach Matt Patricia says he’s wired to react to things that go wrong by figuring out a way to fix them, but he’s been operating differently in recent days.

Patricia watched the video of a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee into George Floyd’s neck until well after Floyd died last Thursday night and first spoke to the team about it the next day. As protests spread around the country and unrest broke out in many cities, Patricia continued the conversation with his team this week.

Patricia told Albert Breer of SI.com that he decided “I really think I gotta listen” rather than try to come up with solutions and that it has been “enlightening” to hear the experience of others with the team during meetings on Monday and Tuesday. The Lions are off on Wednesday and Patricia said the direction from here will be plotted with input from everyone.

“When everyone’s ready to talk and move in that direction of football, we’ll move when the team wants to move,” Patricia said. “I think the one thing to understand there — we won’t move away from the conversation. It’s just, at some point, you’re having the conversation and then you’re also working on what we do, which is football.”

Patricia said the experience of the last few days leaves him trying to “make sure that it’s an everyday thing” that voices are heard within the team and that everyone follows through on the thoughts and ideas for ways to move forward that come up in those conversations.