Matthew Slater

I don't have a snow blower, so I guess I'm a shoveler.

There's a premium put on winning wherever you are.

I think relationships, when it comes to a football team, are very important. I don't think it gets talked about enough, but when you're out on the football field, doing what we're asked to do each and every day, it takes a lot of trust.

It was an honor to be selected to the Pro Bowl, and it means a lot being selected by your peers and coaches and fans.

Us guys that have been lower round draft picks or free agents, we just come in and are willing to work and do whatever's asked of us and hopefully it works out for us.

Whatever you have to do to put the team and the success of the team first is what I see as being 'the Patriot way.'

I guess everybody has a little bit different code for what they call their plays and how they call their plays.

I know one thing about Super Bowls and these types of situations - the only thing that you remember at the end of this Super Bowl experience is the score of the game. That's the only thing you remember. You don't remember who didn't get a ticket to this, who's hotel room was messed up. That doesn't matter.

The story of every season is a little bit different.

Your routine is so much different when you're at home than it is on the road.

You've got to make sure you're loose. As soon as you tighten up then obviously you're not going to be able to run as well as you normally would.

When you're able to have foundational pieces in place it allows you the opportunity to build upon those foundational pieces.

If you're trying to build up an organization and you want that organization to be successful, whether it's in pro sport, whether it's a business, I think consistency is something that you strive for.

Everyone wants to win and have success, and everybody's going to be judged off of whether or not they're winning.

As a fan of sports, I guess sometimes the team that has a lot of success, you kind of want to see the underdog win, so to speak.

Turnovers are huge throughout the course of the regular season, but particularly in the playoffs.

There's a thin line between playing with a sense of urgency and playing a little too tight.

We can't control the noise, the environment that we play in, but we can control what we do and how we execute.

Definitely when you're on the road and the crowd is into it, it can be a factor.

We try not to acknowledge all the noise and hype surrounding ballgames.

I was just trying to make a practice squad my rookie year.

I don't do a very good job of listening to my body all the time, so I'm trying to learn that even in Year 11.

The lifespan of players like myself is usually not a very long one.

We understand that anything that's been done in the past has no bearing on what we do moving forward.

When it comes to successes or failures in this league you have to be able to have a short memory and move on.

You never fault a guy for playing hard and playing aggressive and penalties are part of the game.

To me, my faith is everything.

I was fortunate to be brought up in a Christian home with two parents that feared the Lord, and they raised me to fear the Lord as well.

My hope has always been that the NFL in particular would start to see players is more than just helmets and pads and a number.

I think what we have to do, I firmly believe as a man of faith that we're meant to live life in community.

Regardless of position, football IQ helps put you in those spots to make plays.

The more heady you are and understanding of teams and techniques, you put yourself in a better position to make plays.

You can't be afraid of contact or be afraid of getting your hands dirty and throwing your body around.

I remember running around the locker room as a kid, just following my dad around. It was definitely a unique experience not a lot of children get to have. But those are memories I'll always cherish.

We're human beings, we look at situations, we see people hurting. We see our people, Black people, hurting, and your heart breaks, certainly.

Unfortunately, my first playoff game we didn't win, so not a lot of fun memories from that day.

I think sometimes it's better to learn from someone else's experience than making that mistake yourself.

I'm not out fighting fires, I'm not out on the battlefield, I'm playing football and we really are blessed.

When guys are getting double teamed, there are going to be guys getting freed up and they have to make plays when they can.

I think the sole reason that you play this game is to be the best and you want to be the best team. This is the ultimate team sport.

The preseason obviously is a different feel and you go to the regular season and it's a much different feel; the speed. I think the jump is just as drastic from the regular season to the postseason.

I think it helps for guys that have played in the big games to know what to understand and expect as far as the speed of the game, the intensity of the game - it's nothing like a regular season game.

What happens in the regular season usually has no bearing on what happens in the postseason.

I think if you go into the season with a defeatist mindset, then you can't expect to be successful.

Each day that we have to get up and wake up in our right minds, get out of our beds, interact with our families to express the love that we have for our families with them is a blessing.

Players come and go.

The reality is no player plays forever so at some point in time, you have to have pillars that you stand upon that are not going to fall regardless of who's in or out.

You know, I do enjoy the game of football. I've been around it my entire life so I'll always be a fan and I always have an appreciation for the guys that are out there and what they're doing.

I think every team in this league is on a quest to win and have success, and that quest is not an easy one.

I definitely thought I was fighting for a roster spot and I was. And it is kind of a weird shift to go from that to now, being a captain.