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Today in Patriots History
Chris Slade
Chris Slade
Happy 54th birthday to Chris Slade
Born Jan 30, 1971 in Newport News, Virginia; grew up in Yorktown VA
Patriot LB, 1993-2000; uniform #53
Pats 2nd round (31st overall) selection of the 1993 draft, from Virginia
Pats résumé: 8 seasons, 127 games (108 starts); 640 tackles, 51 sacks, 2 touchdowns; 1997 Pro Bowl; Patriots All-1990s Team
- Patriot All-Decade Team LB for the 1990s
- 1997 Pro Bowl
- 127 regular season games (108 starts)
- 664 tackles (452 solo); 16 tackles for a loss
- 16 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 3 interceptions; two touchdowns
- 7 playoff games: 3½ sacks, one interception and one fumble recovery
FARINELLA: Slade was good guy, but not player (2001)
Bill Parcells was particularly hard on Slade. He once said Slade was “as lost as a ball in tall grass,” and in 1996, as the Patriots were heading toward Super Bowl XXXI, an angry Tuna limited Slade's participation to passing downs only as a means of motivating him.
It worked — Slade was far more effective in the playoffs, but he also became one of the most vocal anti-Parcells voices in the locker room once the Tuna bolted for the Jets. Ironically, the preferred Pete Carroll misused Slade even more, taking him out of pass-rushing situations and dropping him back into coverage.
By the time Bill Belichick got here, and wanted to unleash Slade against quarterbacks again, the linebacker no longer had the quickness or strength to overpower opposing tight ends or tackles.
The Last Bad Patriot Team | The Ringer (2017)
Can you get me in?
For Chris Slade, it was an easy request to fulfill. The NFL veteran linebacker had long since become a regular at Rumjungle, the Mandalay Bay hotel’s 20,000-square foot Brazilian-themed club and restaurant.
So after receiving a call from a desperate young teammate one night in 2001, asking him to help skip the line to enter the Las Vegas hotspot, Slade happily obliged. The Pro Bowler, who had played eight years with the Patriots, approached the bouncer and pointed toward his skinny friend. This is where Tom Brady stood: on the outside looking in.
The unknown quarterback, a sixth-round pick, had recently wrapped an uneventful rookie campaign. That fall, under new head coach Bill Belichick, New England finished with a losing record for the first (and still only) time since 1995. The 2000 season was the franchise’s last prolonged stretch of misery. Defeats piled up, Boston sports-talk radio callers contrived a quarterback controversy not involving Brady, and one of the team’s stars sparked a minor international incident. A Super Bowl run didn’t exactly feel imminent. “Anyone who was thinking that in 2000, God bless you,” said Matt Chatham, then a linebacker with the Pats. “You’re a soothsayer.”
A close examination shows that there were, however subtle, signs of a gestating dynasty. Of course, none of that mattered that evening on the strip. Like most people, the doorman had no clue who this bench-riding kid was.
“That guy over there,” Slade remembered saying, “can you let him in for me?”
For perhaps the last time, someone had to be prompted to lift the velvet rope for Tom Brady.
Slade still remembers the time early in Belichick’s tenure when linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer slipped into a team meeting late. Another head coach might’ve cut the former Ohio State phenom and first-round draft pick some slack. Not Belichick. Journalist and sports radio host Michael Holley recounts the scene in his book War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team. “Katzenmoyer!” the coach is quoted as saying. “Who in the hell do you think you are? Get your ass outta here.”
“He called him out in front of the whole team,” Slade said. “Right then I knew things had changed.”
In May 2000, three months after he hired Scott Pioli as New England’s director of pro personnel, Belichick fired Bobby Grier. Since Parcells’s departure, the longtime Patriots executive had served as the team’s vice president of player personnel. “This,” Belichick said in a statement, “is an unpleasant thing for me to do.”
Milloy admits now that he didn’t know what the Patriots had in Brady. “Nobody knew,” he said. “He was really easy to overlook because he wasn’t even getting reps on the scout team against the defense.” Slade recalled the rookie asking him for the chance to work as a counselor at his football camp at Bridgewater State University. “I was paying him 500 bucks,” Slade said.
Like Milloy, McGinest believed that Belichick would become a transformative figure. Before the 2001 season, McGinest recruited linebacker Roman Phifer, who was choosing between the Patriots and the Raiders. “You should probably come here because we’ve got something special brewing and you’re gonna help this team win,” McGinest recalled telling Phifer. “It took some convincing, but he listened to me. He ended up winning a few Super Bowls.”
Slade would’ve enjoyed being part of that, too. But he never got the chance. In February 2001, the Patriots released the linebacker. He wasn’t shocked. The former All-Pro had just turned 30. His peak had long since passed. In 2001, the Panthers signed Slade. He played one more season before retiring.
Former NFL linebacker Chris Slade, who is now the head football coach at Pace Academy (Atlanta, Georgia), is the Week 7 High School Coach of the Week for the Atlanta Falcons. Slade, who has been the Knights head coach since 2013, has led his program to the Georgia state playoffs during every year except his first, winning the Class AA state title in 2015.
Before returning to UVA, Slade spent the previous nine years (2013-21) as the head football coach at Pace Academy in Atlanta, Ga. During his career he produced a 59-42 record while playing primarily against higher classification schools. Slade led Pace to it first state championship (2A) title in 2015.
During his tenure the program produced 26 college players, two All-Americans, three future NFL players and made eight consecutive playoff appearances. In 2012 he joined the school as the assistant varsity football coach and an admissions associate.
Slade was a second-round draft pick (31st overall selection) by the New England Patriots in 1993. During his eight years (1993-2000) with the team, he was named to the NFL All-Rookie Team and was a three-time defensive player of the year. He served as a team captain and was recognized as a Pro Bowl selection and All-Pro after the 1997 season. Slade was named to the Patriots’ 1990s All-Decade Team. He played his final professional season (2001) as a Carolina Panther. During his nine-year professional career, he appeared in a total of 142 games, totaling 664 tackles including 53.5 sacks and an additional 16 tackles for loss. He was a member of the Patriots team that played in Super Bowl XXXI.
A native of Newport News, Va., Slade played at Tabb High School where he excelled in football, basketball and track. Along with his cousin, Terry Kirby, he helped to lead Tabb to the 1987 Group AA state football title. He was the All-State Virginia High School Defensive Player of the Year and a member of USA Today’s second team All-USA. As a prep basketball standout, Slade was the first basketball player in the York River District history to score more than 1,000 points and grab more than 1,000 rebounds.
Slade was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame of The Lower Virginia Peninsula in 2005, the Virginia High School Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Virginia Hampton Roads African American Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Hoos in Town - Chris Slade - Charlottesville Guide
Chris Slade wastwo-time, first-team All-American defensive end for UVA (1991 and ‘92), and holds the ACC record for career quarterback sacks with 40.
charlottesville.guide
When George Welsh’s program signed both Slade and Tabb High School running back teammate Terry Kirby, who was the USA Today National Player of the Year, Welsh predicted that in four years it might be Slade who made the most impact. Welsh was right.
Slade became a consensus, two-time, first-team All-American defensive end for UVA (1991 and ‘92), and remarkably still holds the ACC record for career quarterback sacks with 40.
Future pros Julius Peppers (UNC) and Peter Boulware (FSU) made runs at the record, which still bears Slade’s name.
Having been part of a four-year span that changed the culture of Virginia football, he was a member of the 1990 squad that reached the nation’s No. 1 ranking for three weeks. He also was part of the 1989 UVA team, the only one in Wahoo history to win 10 games in one season.
Q & A with Coach Chris Slade
This week, we feature Chris Slade, admission associate and head football coach. Coach Slade was a standout football star and first-team All-American at the University of Virginia. He then spent eight years in the National Football League as a linebacker for the New England Patriots and his final...
www.paceacademy.org
Deathstroke, The Blade - Chris Slade Career Highlights
13:48 Highlight Video
Chris Slade Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College | Pro-Football-Reference.com
Checkout the latest stats for Chris Slade. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, college, draft, and more on Pro-football-reference.com.
www.pro-football-reference.com
