He was “Chief.”
Twenty or so years after Robert Parish first had the nickname, David Patten, who passed away last week at the age of 47, made it his own as a member of the Patriots.
While Parish gained the nickname because of a quiet stoicism, Patten’s sprang from a gregarious nature: He called everyone Chief. Teammates. Equipment guys. Us in the media. In the early days of the 2001 season, Patten’s nickname was what distinguished him from everyone else.
While Patten wasn’t exactly an afterthought when he signed — he had 38 receptions the year before with Cleveland — there were other new faces like Charles Johnson and Bert Emanuel whose resumes demanded more attention.