Patriots Rival Gives Passionate, Hard-To-Argue Rant About Jerod Mayo
As a former NFL player, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo probably should have known better.
The first-year coach is trying like hell to keep the train on the tracks as things crumble around him. The Patriots are 1-6 and are indisputably one of the NFL’s worst teams. Mayo compounded that by calling his team “soft” in front of the world after an ugly Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
While the Patriots should be preparing for the New York Jets, it seems like Mayo and his team have spent the week doing damage control. With each passing day, someone else weighs in with their own take, and most of them don’t paint Mayo in a good light.
Enter Richard Sherman, the former All-Pro cornerback with plenty to say on Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” postgame show about Mayo putting his foot in his mouth.
“It’s frustrating to hear that because if it’s Bill Belichick, an acclaimed head coach — that Jerod Mayo didn’t have an accomplished (playing) career — but you’re a rookie head coach,” Sherman started. “You don’t get to say nothing at this point until you earn the right to say things. You earn the right by winning, scheming, showing your scheme is effective. We don’t even know if your identity and culture is effective.”
Sherman spent 11 years in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. He won a Super Bowl, went to another and was a three-time All-Pro. He played for Pete Carroll, one of the most respected coaches of his generation. Sherman knows a thing or two about what makes a good coach in the NFL, and more importantly, what that coach must to do get his locker room in order.
It’s similar to criticisms from Belichick earlier in the week. The former Patriots coach might have an axe to grind, and he played fast and loose with the narratives, but Sherman argued that one of Belichick’s bigger points exposed a major red flag regarding how Mayo was handling himself.
“That’s why Bill Belichick came out and was like, ‘These are the same guys we had last year, and we stopped the run fine.’ Now you’ve (Mayo) got the same guys, and you’re not getting it done at a high level. That says more about you than the players.
“Then saying your players are soft lacks accountability, it lacks personal accountability. You have a part in this. You have a part in them not stopping the run and by not putting the blame on you, you lose respect of the players.”
Longtime offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth agreed with Sherman and took exception to Mayo being so public with his criticism. Whitworth thought Mayo should have kept that in-house — and he should have the proof to back up his point.
“In the public, to reporters, you don’t need to address me,” he said. “You wanna address me? Address me to my face. Treat me like a grown man. If you think I’m soft, tell me I’m soft. … (But) you better be able to prove (to) me I’m soft when you tell me I’m soft.
” … It’s not coaching, it’s not leading. It’s not challenging.”
Mayo really seems to have stepped in it with this one. Nothing that has happened this week will quiet any critics who believe he’s in over his head. If he and his team can rebound, it likely turns the entire thing into a blip on the radar for a first-year coach learning his way. Then again, if the players in the Patriots’ locker room agree with Sherman and Whitworth, it’s going to take a lot of work for Mayo to win over his group.