Matt Patricia, a 45-year-old white man raised in Central New York, and Trey Flowers, a 27-year-old Black man from Huntsville, Alabama, were talking in the spring following the death of George Floyd.
The two come from different places, different perspectives and different experiences, yet they work together, Patricia as the Detroit Lions coach, Flowers as one of the team’s defensive linemen. Patricia wanted to know what he could do to help. Flowers came up with a basic request.
“Just listen,” Flowers said.
That comment weighed on Patricia as video emerged Sunday of Jacob Blake being shot in the back by a Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer.