It happened once, twice, a dozen times Monday.
As a crowd of reporters gathered around Darius Slay at Super Bowl LVII media night pelting him with questions, one reporter vying for the Philadelphia Eagles cornerback’s attention shouted, Hey, Darius.
“It’s Slay,” Slay corrected him.
Darius …
“It’s Slay. You know it’s Slay.”
Darius!
“Slay, Slay, Slay.”
Slay is a junior, he explained, and he reserves his name for his father. His grandmother is the only one who really calls him “Darius.” His mother usually calls him “Baby.”
And, “Slay just sounds so much better,” he said.
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“I slay at video games, I slay in basketball. I slay at everything I kind of do.”
Ten years into his NFL career and on the verge of playing in his first Super Bowl, Slay is undeniably slaying at the game of life.
The former Detroit Lions second-round pick could become the next in a succession of ex-Lions-turned-Super Bowl champs, following the footsteps of Matthew Stafford (with the Los Angeles Rams last season) and Ndamukong Suh (his current teammate with the Eagles, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021) if the Eagles can beat Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at State Farm Stadium on Sunday.
In his hourlong media session Monday, Slay professed his appreciation for the team that drafted him, showed off the fun-loving nature that endeared him to Lions fans, dished on his time in Detroit and explained how life has been different since his trade to the Eagles three years ago.
“It’s different cause we’re winning over here,” Slay said. “I mean, just going out here playing, executing at a high level, but it feels good, man. We’re winning. In Detroit I wasn’t winning and it’s not because of coaching or anything, but we just wasn’t winning. And being on the winning side feels very good, man. Sometimes over there, seasons felt long. This season went by pretty fast cause winning. But I’m thankful that Philly kind of traded for me. I do love Detroit, I do love them. But I love Philly, too.”
Slay struggled his first year in Detroit, as rookie cornerbacks often do, and was benched early in the 2013 season by then-Lions coach Jim Schwartz.
He started all 16 games the following season, becoming Pro Bowler three years later when he led the league with eight interceptions, ingrained himself in the community by dropping in on high school games and asking to join local prep and college workouts on social media, and he almost never had a bad day despite plenty of reason to as his Lions career went on.
Slay explained to reporters Monday the secret he shared with Detroit long ago: His rollicking personality is a product of circumstance. He became a father at 15, was forced to go the junior college route in college and by his own account is lucky to be living out a dream in the NFL. How on earth could he have a bad day when he has everything he ever wanted and more?
“Me being 15 years old, I couldn’t really experience a kid’s life anymore because I had to raise a young one myself so it made me grow up faster than I wanted to,” Slay said. “But then again, that’s why I think I laugh and play a lot now because I’m bringing back my kid life still.”
Beloved by teammates, Slay’s exuberance has occasionally been misunderstood, which is — shamefully — why he’s no longer a Lion.
Slay butted heads with his third Lions coach, the overbearing Matt Patricia, immediately after Patricia arrived in town fresh of a New England Patriots Super Bowl loss to the Eagles in 2018.
Patricia was generally dismissive of what the Lions had accomplished under Jim Caldwell (two playoff appearances in four seasons and one of the league’s best defenses in 2014) and demanded players respect his resume as a Super Bowl-winning Patriots assistant. He made offensive remarks to Slay during one team meeting his first season about a social media post Slay had made during his offseason training with other NFL stars, and two years later forced Slay’s trade to Philadelphia.
“I mean, it’s just weird how he came in like he’s just bigger and better than all us,” Slay told reporters Monday. “He acting like we asked to be here. We do get selected, you know what I’m saying? If we had a choice to pick, guys would pick a lot of different areas. But yeah, that was crazy. That was the first crazy part about him.”
Asked about the 2018 incident that permanently fractured their relationship, Slay said Patricia had a “big problem” with him working out with and paying respect to other team’s stars.
“He just like basically just said like, ‘Hey, you’re not in their category yet,’” Slay said. “By that time I only had one Pro Bowl, but now I’m at five so I want to know how he feels about that now.”
Slay, 32, has made the Pro Bowl in five of the past six seasons and the playoffs in two of his three years with the Eagles, and as he closes in on the end of his NFL career he’s still paying respect to his peers across the league.
On Monday, he praised Mahomes as “the best quarterback in our game right now,” knowing full well he has a pretty good one in Jalen Hurts on his own sideline. He named Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain the best cornerback in the NFL, humbly putting himself second on the list. And he shared a story about New York Jets rookie Sauce Gardner, who he met years ago when he was playing for the Lions.
“I met him when he was a little kid in Detroit because I used to go to Detroit high school games,” Slay said. “He pulled up at a couple of my workouts. Watching him gloss up to that guy he is today is amazing. He got a great coach (assistant Tony Oden) up there as well because he coached me in Detroit. But yeah, man, I was proud of him. I wasn’t shocked because I know what kind of work he put in, but sky’s the limit for him. He’s going to be one of the best for sure, soon.”
As much as he is the same player he was in Detroit, Slay is different, too. Smarter, wiser, more mature.
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On an Eagles team that has the most well-rounded roster in the NFL, with an emerging star quarterback in Hurts, the league’s best offensive line, two Pro Bowl-caliber receivers and the game’s most lethal pass rush, Slay was voted a captain this year for the first time in his career.
He said that honor “kind of made me feel like, dang, I can continue to be myself and still be a leader,” and he said the C on his chest has brought him “very much good luck” that he doesn’t want to lose.
Before the Eagles left for the Super Bowl, Slay said his kids made one request: Win the game.
“That’s it,” he said. “They don’t want to make this trip and go home with an L.”
Neither does Slay, of course. After nine years of watching the Super Bowl from afar and wondering what it would be like to experience the game, he’s finally here and enjoying the ride.
“I was made for moments like this,” Slay said. “I was born for moments like this and I’m glad – I’m thankful to be able to have this moment.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.