Patriots
FOXBOROUGH – Bill Belichick clearly has a bone to select with Jerod Mayo and the Patriots shall be fired in January.
And after Mayo opened himself as much as criticism by initially calling the Patriots a “soft” team on Sunday, Belichick took multiple opportunities to denounce New England's recent head coach and defend his former players.
“These guys kind of hurt me because to call them soft – they're not soft, they were the best team in the league against the run last year,” Belichick said on ESPN's “The Pat McAfee” on Monday his former players Show.” “Those guys went on the market and did it regardless that we couldn't rating many points offensively, so I don't know – I feel bad for the defensive players on this game because that's a tricky group.”
Belichick continued his volley against Mayo on Monday night during his appearance on “Let's Go!” Podcast with Jim Gray and Tom Brady.
“I think when you publicly criticize your team like that, it doesn’t always go over well,” Belichick said. “Every coach has their own style and maybe that can be effective at times, but ultimately I always felt that if a team played poorly it was also my responsibility.
“We may have played badly, but we had a bad coach which led to bad play. That's why I think it's always best to take a look at yourself and do what you can do to help the team. And then, you know, when you give constructive criticism as a coach, that’s your job.”
On Wednesday morning, Mayo was asked if he was disappointed that his former coach had repeatedly criticized him.
Perhaps in his most fitting tribute to Belichick, Mayo chose to look forward rather than dwell on the verbal comments leveled against him.
“Like I said, my main focus is the people in this building,” Mayo noted. “Not just the players, but also the coaches and the rest of the staff. As soon as we turn the thing over, everything is fine. It comes down to wins and losses. That’s what matters and that’s what you’ll ultimately be judged on.”
Throughout most of Wednesday's press conference, Mayo did a good job of Belichick's tried-and-tested media maneuvers – shifting discussion of his comments and last week's loss to the Jaguars to the focus of New England's upcoming home game against the Jets.
“The message to these guys – it’s all about the Jets and we’re moving on,” Mayo said. “Obviously there’s a lot of noise out there. And I said: We are what our balance sheet is. We have to get better. That is ultimately my responsibility. And look, I take all the blame. It's okay. It’s moving to the jets.”
Despite Belichick's pointed comments, veteran defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said he didn't get much from Belichick and Mayo's recent quotes about the team.”
“I don’t think Bill means any harm,” Godchaux said via Alex Barth from 98.5 The Sports Hub. “I think people misunderstood it…just like I think people misunderstood Jerod [calling the team soft].”
While a number of the aforementioned “noise” Mayo described following his comments immediately after Sunday's game was self-inflicted, two Patriots wide receivers have also made their coach's job tougher due to social media.
Mayo faced questions Monday about rookie Ja'Lynn Polk's cryptic Instagram post after a disappointing game in London and KJ Osborn's posting of an exchange between him and sports agent Brandon Abdala about his role on the team's depth chart.
Despite those distractions, Mayo emphasized Wednesday that the Patriots are usually not changing their stance on social media use and won’t implore players to stop using it as an outlet in the long run.
“To me, it is what it is,” Mayo said. “For example, when you win games there will be noise. I mean, we've been doing this for a long time. It's very cyclical. Sometimes stories are already written, they just involve a different cast of characters.
“What I would say is that we know that the only people who can go out and win football games are not the media, not your mother calling you and telling you X, Y and Z, or someone in the supermarket. No, it’s about the people who are in this building.”
image credit : www.boston.com