Why Does Matthew Slater Always Call Heads?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots have had two gigantic coin flips over the last three years, and captain Matthew Slater has made the call for both of them.
On both of those flips -- in New England's Super Bowl LI overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons and Sunday's AFC Championship win over the Chiefs -- Slater has gone against everyone's favorite rhyme and called heads.
Tails never fails? Not if you're Slater. The Patriots won both coin tosses heading into those overtimes, and then marched down the field to victory in both cases.
Why does the special teams captain always call heads? He explained his coin toss gameplan Monday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
"I remember as a child watching my father play in L.A., and him going out and doing the coin toss for the Rams. He always called heads," explained Slater. "I asked him, 'Why do you do that? What's the story?' Anyone who knows my family knows faith is important to us. For him, he always said God was the head of his life so he always called heads. I've kind of just embraced it and I'm glad it's worked for us the lats couple of times we needed it."
It's only fitting that the Patriots will now play the L.A. Rams in Super Bowl LIII in two weeks. The Patriots will be considered the road team for that contest, so if it does require overtime, Slater will get to try his luck against his father's old team.
Slater isn't sure of his all-time record when it comes to the overtime coin toss, but he'll gladly take the credit for winning two of the most important ones.
"I'm glad the two biggest ones I've been involved in have worked out for us," he said.
And once Slater secured possession for the Patriots heading into the extra frame, he was pretty darn confident that Tom Brady would lead the Patriots down the field for the win.
"You always have a lot of confidence when No. 12 is on your team," he said of his quarterback. "You always have a chance to win any game, no matter what the situation is. We felt good about giving our offense the ball and they certainly did the job once they got it."
