Patriots Champion Sends Fiery Message To New England Amid Struggles
The Patriots didn’t do themselves many favors across the first half of the NFL season.
New England’s on-field performance dating back to September was largely lousy, but that was to be expected from a team with an inadequate roster. However, the situation in Foxboro, Mass., was made worse by players spouting off and creating unnecessary distractions.
Jason McCourty, who played on several bad teams before joining the Patriots in 2018, can understand players’ frustrations amid a difficult season. But the Super Bowl LIII champion believes the best course of action for folks at One Patriot Place is to keep their head down and work.
“I would urge players, if you like your head coach, and you like the direction your team is going, shut the hell up in the media,” McCourty told Tom E. Curran on the latest “Patriots Talk Podcast,” as transcribed by NBC Sports Boston. “Go out there on a Sunday and make plays and ball, and leave all the rest of the stuff to be determined by the front office, coaches and all of that to handle it.
“Because that was my thing. When you’re on teams that aren’t winning, everybody’s looking for any fracture or any crack within the organization to sow dissension or a coach that doesn’t have control over a locker room or anything like that. So that, from the outside looking in, that’s bothered me, of being around the team in the preseason and seeing the energy and the love that everybody had for the new way that everything was rolling, and then you see things like that happen, just, like, well, that’s not adding up.”
Fortunately for the Patriots, it seems like things are turning for the better. It showed a ton of heart and good character the last two weeks, rallying to beat the rival New York Jets and improbably forcing overtime against the Tennessee Titans.
New England obviously isn’t going anywhere this season. But it can use the second half to set the tone for 2025 by instilling good habits and fostering a great culture in the locker room.