A Super Bowl championship led to an infamous scene featuring a champion departing an airplane.
New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was proudly sporting a Barstool Roger Goodell clown shirt as his team was freshly crowned champions after finishing off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, defeating the Atlanta Falcons after falling down 28-3. Despite the move, Patricia's since landed a head coaching gig with the Detroit Lions. But that doesn't mean the issue didn't pop up during the hiring process.
According to Justin Rogers of the Detroit News, Lions general manager Bob Quinn and president Ron Wood admitted that the topic of Patricia proudly sporting the clown shirt did come up briefly during the interview process, but that it wasn't a great topic of conversation.
“It is not a concern at all,” Quinn said. “And yes, we talked about it. I’d say very briefly.”
Obviously, the organization felt comfortable with it all, but Wood reiterated they felt extremely comfortable with Patricia.
“I did get a very satisfactory answer,” Wood said. “I’m not going to tell you what the answer was. I think that Matt has talked to Roger since that happened.
“I don’t think it’s going to affect how Roger views the Detroit Lions.”
After leading his defense to a poor showing in Super Bowl 52—relenting 41 points to Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles offense—Patricia has since officially been introduced as head coach in Detroit.
Patricia has been the Pats defensive coordinator since 2012 and as a Bill Belichick disciple, enjoyed many interested parties wanting to investigate his potential head coaching candidacy over the last few years. Now, clown shirt or not, he's the boss in the Motor City.