Patriots WANTED to kick off at overtime vs. Jets
By Mike Dyce
Apparently the New England Patriots wanted to kickoff to start overtime.
The New England Patriots and New York Jets went to overtime and the Patriots won the coin toss. The obvious choice for the Patriots would be to receive, considering a first-drive touchdown could end the game.
But Patriots wide receiver and special-teamer Matthew Slater elected to kick. There was then some confusion, Jets defensive back Antonio Cromartie looked confused and once the Jets were announced to receive Slater was heard saying don’t we get to choose, suggesting he realized his mistake all too late.
But apparently it wasn’t a mistake at all, it was entirely intentional.
Matthew Slater says coach instructed Patriots to kick off at start of overtime. The only confusion was which direction they were kicking.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) December 27, 2015
And just to be sure, Slater apparently checked multiple times.
Matthew Slater says he checked with coaches multiple times that they definitely wanted to kick off.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) December 27, 2015
That’s right, Bill Belichick and crew instructed Slater to kick. The protest from Slater about being able to choose was the direction of the kickoff, which makes sense since the referee asked the Jets in which direction they’d like to receive.
The Patriots must have been feeling pretty confident they could stop the Jets and then get a field goal to in the game, but it backfired horrendously when the Jets scored a touchdown on the first drive to win the game.
Watch the whole sequence below: