The coin toss in Sunday night's AFC Championship Game landed on heads, a fateful flip that allowed the New England Patriots to receive the ball, drive for the game-winning score, and never let Patrick Mahomes touch the pigskin in the fifth period.
Matthew Slater called heads, same as he did in overtime of the Super Bowl LI victory. Same as he always does. The Patriots captain has a very good reason for always calling heads.
"Well, I remember as a child watching my father play in L.A. and him going out and doing the coin toss for the Rams," Slater said, via the Boston Globe. "He always called heads, so I asked him one time, 'Hey, why do you do that? What's the story behind that?' I think anyone who knows my family knows faith is important to us, and for him, he was always like, 'You know, God's the head of my life, so I call heads.' That was something he came up with, and I've kind of just embraced it."
That as good a reason as any to justify which side of a random coin to choose in deciding the fate of the biggest game of your season.
Slater's father, Jackie, played 20 years as an offensive tackle with the Rams (the first 19 in L.A.) from 1976-1995. Despite the franchise ties, the elder Slater with the sage coin-flip strategy won't be cheering on the Rams on Super Bowl Sunday.
"We had a good conversation [Sunday] night," the younger Slater said. "He's going to support his son, so we cleared the air on that last night, and we're all squared away."
What a coincidence it would be if Jackie Slater's coin-flip advice comes back to haunt his former team in Super Bowl LIII.
