FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — It may have been his last game in New England, and Matt Patricia wasn't ready for it to end.
The Patriots defensive coordinator went back onto the field long after the AFC championship was over and the team had advanced to the Super Bowl for the sixth time in his tenure.
There, he tossed around a football with his son before flopping onto his back on the confetti that had fallen during the team's celebration.
"(It was) just fun to have him out there running around and just seeing the excitement that he had to be out on the field," Patricia said this week as he tried to maintain his focus on the Super Bowl and not his expected next step: as head coach of the Detroit Lions.