Patriots’ Patricia feels super again

FOXBOROUGH, MASS.» It may have been his last game with New England, and Matt Patricia wasn’t ready for it to end.

The Patriots’ defensive coordinator went back on the field long after the AFC championship game was over and the team had advanced to the Super Bowl for the sixth time in his tenure.

There, he tossed around a football with his son before flopping onto his back on the confetti that had fallen during the team’s celebration.

“(It was) just fun to have him out there running around and just seeing the excitement that he had to be out on the field,” Patricia said this week as he tried to maintain his focus on Super Bowl LII and not his expected next step: as head coach of the Detroit Lions. “That’s always just kind of a special little moment for myself and him and my wife.”

Most identifiable by his bushy beard, backward-facing ballcap and cargo shorts or cutoff sweatpants no matter what the weather, Patricia will be on the Patriots’ sideline Feb. 4 when they face the Philadelphia Eagles in an attempt to win their sixth NFL championship.

Then he will reportedly be hired as the Lions’ head coach.

Patricia has declined to comment on the Detroit job other than to confirm that he “went through the process that the NFL allows us to go through during the bye week.”

The Lions confirmed that they interviewed Patricia and reportedly informed the unsuccessful candidates, but they cannot make it official until after the Patriots are done playing.

“We’re just trying to get the win,” defensive lineman Trey Flowers said Friday. “That’s all it’s about here.”

But for Patricia, that’s not all it’s about.

Players say he takes a special interest in them, talking to them not just as players but also asking about their families.

“It’s not just to coach you up,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “That’s a must for him. That shows what kind of man he is outside of the building. He takes pride in us as players, but he also takes pride in us as people.”

Patricia became the Pats’ defensive coordinator in 2012.