FOXBORO — Every boy dreams of running free under a long, arcing pass. No boy dreams of running, jostled and jousted all the way, under a long arcing kickoff. Yet for Matthew Slater, the latter has been a dream job for eight years. A happy life, you see, is the art of compromise.

Slater has become one of the NFL’s most adept coverers of kickoffs and punts, a thankless occupation he’s done so well, despite being barely 200 pounds after a dousing, that he’s been selected to the Pro Bowl the past four seasons. That’s more than half as many times as his father, Hall of Fame right tackle Jackie Slater, who made the trip to Honolulu seven times but it took him 20 years of playing to do it.

Those accomplishments, though quiet validation for accomplishing an often unseen task, are nothing compared with knowing he opened his father’s eyes to a side of professional football he was blind to when he was living out his own big dreams with the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams two decades ago.

“We’ve had several conversations about it,” Slater said yesterday while relaxing at his locker before watching tape of arguably the game’s most concussive plays as he prepares for Sunday’s collisions with the Jacksonville Jaguars. “I don’t think my dad had a great appreciation for special teams.

“He told me he looked upon them as ‘just there.’ They were mostly guys who didn’t play in the game to him. He looks at it different now.”

One would imagine so because Slater’s son has been risking life and limb going on eight seasons now and he’s been far more than just there. That’s because he seems to always be there, there being the place the ball ends up once kicked.

Slater has led the Patriots in special team tackles four of the past five seasons, missing out in 2013 after losing four games due to injury and still finishing second with 14 tackles. In that phase of the game, he is the man most likely in the middle of the play yet is also among the most likely to go unnoticed in the larger game.

He is not Gronk or Julian Edelman. He will never be given a nickname like “White Shoes” or “X Factor” or “Sugar Foot.” That’s because although he has at times returned kicks, mostly he has covered them, his job primarily one of running down field with controlled abandon, trying to avoid human heat-seeking missiles searching for him as he scans the field looking for a ball carrier to throw to the ground.

This, too, is a football life, but not one likely to become an NFL Films documentary. It is not a glamorous existence, although he can always say he’s the only receiver in the league with a career average of 46 yards per catch. Of course, he’s only caught one ball in 105 games but, hey, who’s counting?

Not Matthew Slater.

“You have to put your pride aside,” Slater admitted. “That happened for me in college.”

It was there, at UCLA, that Slater first learned a boy’s dreams can be far different than a man’s reality. He became one of the country’s most prolific kick returners, but saw action in only two games as a wide receiver in five years. Nothing changed after the Patriots selected him in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL draft.

“Once I got here, coach (Bill) Belichick made clear what my role would be,” Slater said. “That role may go underappreciated in some places, but not here. The fact that year after year coach has guys on the roster whose role is special teams makes it easier to see its importance.

“He shows us plenty of clips of special teams plays, just like he does the offense and defense. The importance of it comes from the head coach.

“But look, I’m a fan and a player. I’d rather watch Gronk or Julian catch touchdown passes too. Covering kicks isn’t the most exciting thing to watch. I understand that. But there are a lot of us who do it in this league and none of us feel sorry for ourselves. This is a great job.

“It’s equally challenging physically and mentally. For me, at this stage of my career, the motivation is to be the best player I can be at whatever the job is and to contribute to my team’s success.”

Slater has most certainly reached that goal. Along with four straight Pro Bowl appearances he’s been to two Super Bowls, won one and been a team captain for the past five years. In other words, Matthew Slater achieved his dream, just in slightly altered fashion.

“If you don’t buy into your role on a football team, it’s hard to stay on that team for long,” said Slater, whose NFL life already has exceeded the normal career’s by 100 percent. “That’s especially true on special teams. If you don’t want to do it, you’re easily replaceable. I’m grateful for the role.”

Not as grateful as his coach, who knows if there’s one thing he doesn’t have to worry about on game day or any other day it’s where’s Matthew Slater? Most of the time, he’s where he’s supposed to be, which Sunday will be in the grill of anyone from Jacksonville trying to advance a kick on the New England Patriots.