An opinion in a local Detroit newspaper last week accompanied the headline: "Detroit Lions' Matt Patricia is in danger of losing his players."
The column cited Patricia making professionals run for mistakes during practice as the reason the first-time head coach could alienate players.
Joining NFL Network's Good Morning Football on Thursday, Lions receiver Marvin Jones laughed off the controversy.
"Shoot, it's football. We run. You know what I'm saying?" Jones said. "Nobody is complaining. Everybody is just going out here working hard and we're having fun doing it
"So, whoever's grandma wrote that story, I don't know."
Sick grandma burn.
The column has since been roundly criticized as off-base and intentionally inflammatory. Others might tend to call it #FakeNews.
Jones said the Lions practices under Patricia have been "great" and the seven-year pro dismissed any concerns that Detroit could become New England West, even with the coach importing some tactics Bill Belichick uses, like making players run for mistakes.
"That's one thing I do is run," Jones said of Patricia making players take laps as punishment. "In the NFL you have to be able to run all day. I mean these practices, they've been great. Obviously, we use this part of the offseason to set that solid foundation and I think that's what we've been doing.
"We're not the Patriots, so all the players saying 'oh, we don't like it there' and stuff like that, we're doing our thing here. It's a new regime, it's a new Detroit Lions right now."
Thus ends one of the weirdest offseason sagas. In reality, Patricia should thank the columnist. He got NFL players to defend their coach's punishment devices and basically say they like to run. Maybe Matt Patricia the rocket scientist is truly smarter than all of us.
