Lions GM Bob Quinn 'very comfortable' keeping coach Matt Patricia despite sex assault claim
Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn never considered firing his good friend Matt Patricia as head coach after reports first surfaced that Patricia was accused of sexual assault as a college undergrad.
Quinn, in his first public comments since the Patricia accusations came to light last May, said Friday he was "very comfortable" keeping Patricia as coach, after Patricia first came to him to tell him about the incident last spring.
“I first found out about it a couple days before the article came out," Quinn said. "Matt had got wind that the article was going to come out and he came and told me. So we had extensive conversations with myself, ownership, (president) Rod (Wood) about everything, and then we put out that statement back in May about our support for Matt and that’s kind of how it went down."
Patricia was accused of sexual assault during a spring break trip to South Padre Island, Texas, in 1996. He was indicted for the crime but never prosecuted, and said in a news conference days after the allegations first surfaced that he was "falsely accused."
The Lions issued a joint statement from Quinn, Wood and owner Martha Ford at the time, saying the incident did not show up on Patricia's standard pre-employment background check, and that the organization stood behind him as coach.
"For a high-level position, we do an extensive background check on everybody and nothing came up, so that’s kind of how we go through those processes," Quinn said.
Asked if it should have, given that it was public record and easily found in a LexisNexis search, Quinn said, "Listen, I’m not paid to do extensive background checks, I’m here to select a head coach, and I’m very comfortable with Matt Patricia as our head coach."
MORE: Paste BN Sports' playoff picks: Who wins wild-card games and Super Bowl LIII?
MORE: NFL mock draft 2019: Where does top QB Dwayne Haskins land in first round?
Quinn and Patricia spent 12 seasons working together with the New England Patriots before Quinn took over as Lions general manager in 2016.
Quinn fired Jim Caldwell last January after back-to-back 9-7 seasons, and hired Patricia as head coach a month later.
The Lions went 6-10 in Patricia's first season, and Quinn said Friday he does not believe the allegations had any impact on this year's record or caused players to doubt their head coach.
"I think our players were very supportive of Matt after that happened and quickly we were into OTAs and we kind of moved on to football," he said. "So I don’t think it did."
Asked if he would have hired Patricia had he known about the incident during the coaching search, Quinn declined to answer.
"I’m not going to deal in hypotheticals," he said. "I didn’t know at the time, and going forward, we’re just going to stand by our statement."
Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.