Matt Patricia offers long-winded explanation on why he had his Lions practice in the snow

At least Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia wasn’t complaining about anyone’s posture this time.

It has become an odd curiosity this week why the Lions practiced in the snow. Their next four games are indoors. The earliest they’d play a snow game is Dec. 16 at Buffalo. Still, out they went.

Since Patricia’s first season — probably all the way back to shortly after he was hired — isn’t going well, every sarcastic and condescending comment from him or his staff will get scrutinized. And there will be questions about a 3-6 team practicing in the snow when Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers will be indoors.

Patricia offered an explanation and it checked in at 891 words, according to Kyle Meinke of the MLive Media Group.

Matt Patricia’s reasons for practicing in the snow

Here’s the transcript from Justin Rogers of the Detroit News. There’s a lot of Detroit Lions information in it:

For those not inclined to read almost 900 words of a coach explaining why it was smart to have his team practice in the snow (you can also read it in Rogers’ story here), his main point was it was safer for the team to practice outside on grass rather than indoors on turf.

“The downside of practicing indoors on the turf is the wear and effect that it has on the bigger-bodied players on our team,” Patricia said. “Standing on turf, or running on turf, for extended periods of time, affects joints. It affects swelling. And it really causes the body in different members of our team to have pain or joint swelling that will then cause them further delay in preparing for the game.”

He also talked about practicing in the elements, which prepares his team for those situations down the road. That might all be true, but it’s not like he’s build up any goodwill or benefit of the doubt in Detroit yet.

Patricia chides “all the head coaches”

Patricia finished his speech about practice with some sarcasm.

“We’re going to be practicing inside today, just so everybody is clear. All right? Make sure everybody is good with all the head coaches in the room on that,” Patricia said. “Everybody good there? Again, there’s some wind out there, some dust, probably a good idea we practice inside and make sure we have some good time.”

A reminder: Matt Patricia is 3-6 as an NFL head coach.

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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