T.J. Lang: Matt Patricia runs a ‘tight ship’ but nothing close to Patriots’ no-fun attitude

If you’ve been following the national NFL conversation, the New England Patriots have been under the spotlight thanks to comments from Cassius Marsh, who was claimed by the 49ers after spending a couple months with the Patriots last season. Marsh criticized New England for miscasting him, making him feel unappreciated and just making football no fun for him anymore.

“They don’t have fun there. There’s nothing fun about it. There’s nothing happy about it,” Marsh said. “I didn’t enjoy any of my time there, you know what I’m saying? It made me for the first time in my life think about not playing football because I hated it that much.”

Especially in the aftermath of the odd Malcolm Butler saga that ended their season, that quote sparked a national conversation about whether “The Patriot Way” was worth it. Obviously it has brought the team unmatched success, but Marsh isn’t the first to express his frustrations with how the organization has treated its players.

Now that the Lions have both general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia, who cut their NFL teeth with the Patriots, are the Lions players in for the same kind of no-fun treatment?

Based on a few months on the job, Lions guard T.J. Lang doesn’t think so.

Lang joined “The Pat McAfee Show” on the Barstool Radio channel on SiriusXM this week and discussed what it’s been like to work under Patricia thus far.

“Everything so far has been top notch,” Lang said. “You get it right away and Coach Patricia has obviously been very successful his whole career and that’s all he really knows and that’s all he really expects is high success and it’s rubbing off on the guys, guys are working hard and it’s been a good summer.”

But has Patricia been cracking the whip and shutting down the fun in Detroit?

“It’s definitely a tight ship but, you know, from reading some of the former Patriots and how they described things over there I wouldn’t say it’s anything close to that,” Lang said. “You know, we still have fun. I mean, guys still, guys enjoy playing football, man. It’s like a breath of fresh air for everybody kind of getting a new perspective.”

Matt Patricia is trying to buck the current trend of former Patriots coaches failing when they try bring success to another franchise. But from the beginning, Patricia maintained that he’s not trying to be the Patriots or Bill Belichick.

“I’ll say this: there is one coach Belichick. That’s it,” Patricia said during his introductory press conference. “He’s amazing. He’s in New England. I’m Matt Patricia. I’m kind of my own person. I’m my own guy. I’ve got my own style.”

It appears that style will still include a little fun in Detroit—at least, for now.