Mayo's Intoductory Press Conference

[Ring 6]

Words are cheap - so many people say the right things in these settings- I want to see wise decisions on caches, GM, and especially draft picks. Then I can believe whatever words are said.

Words are cheap may be true but it’s not really applicable when the words are responding to do you have a plan and those words amount to “no”.

Of course what they actually do is what matters but all we gave so far to assess how we feel that’s going to go is who they are and what they say.
It’s not looking optimistic in that way.

 

[BTTA]

If you don't have diversity, then you have a monoculture, which means you put obstacles in front of talent because of who they are. I'm glad he wants to make the team culture accessible and encouraging to everyone. It'll only help.

 

[Real fan 02]

It's a tricky spot with Mac. Under no circumstances do I want the guy to start for us again but if we draft Jayden Daniels I don't think we just want to throw him into the fire. There would need to be a bridge QB, but I'd hate for it to be Mac.

Agreed. Mac and Zapp both see themselves as starting QB in the league. They'd do no good for the new qb. Find a bridge veteran why growing and developing Daniels.

 

[Tunescribe]

That was depressing. Seemed like 2 guys up there who had no clue.
How many HCs get hired and are asked when they expect to win and say “we will evaluate”?

It certainly was short on substance. The "I'm here to develop people" thing rings a bit hollow -- it's football, not a halfway house. Right now this is an organization at loose ends with no strong GM and a neophyte head coach articulating no clear vision, especially on offense. Mayo seems like a strong leader but how that will translate re. philosophy and on game day are open questions. The press conference didn't answer much definitively.

 

[festy1986]

@Peachhead @JohnJH @Jlaff

Did you read this post that Ross just posted about Jonathan Jones? (one of our defensive leaders).


He literally states the importance of Mayo being black and having a black head coach. It’s important to the players and their buy-in. Again, deal with reality.

All that tells me is the players don't care about winning.

They care about the wrong thing.

That makes sense, giving the results weve seen.

Deal with it.

Okay then the answer is that Mayo it personally mattered to him as a point of pride and he wanted to bring attention to it in a press conference Kraft announced to celebrate his hire. It's not that complicated. I really don't get why anybody would be upset about that when he said that wins were the most important thing.

And that's great.

And all I asked was how does it equal wins? Cause that's literally all I care about.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

For many players this is true.

The question is, can you find enough who will subsume ego enough for the success of the team in order to create a successful winner.

Jack Jones may be a good example. Mayo may believe Jones could've been saved. But do you want Jack Jones on your team at all even if he can be saved? Is he reliable?

Look, I know this may be a stretch but, it's not surprising to me that the Asante Samuel who choked in crucial situations is also the guy that goes off half-****ed all the time and makes a fool out of himself.

Who left New England disgruntled and won elsewhere? Maybe Wes Welker?

I think we are talking about two different things. Players with character issues (Jones and Jackson great examples and Mayo indirectly mentioned them with his “what they do outside the building” comment), and normal young players who aren’t doing something “because coach said so” without understanding the “why”so they can buy in.

I’m almost 44.

So, interesting age because I was raised by combo of boomers/GenX, worked with and hired folks from those, Millennial, and all the way down to Gen Z, and am raising 3 Gen Alphas.

Each generation is different, and they all believe the others are the problem haha.

Honestly?

Z and younger are often my favorites once you filter through the flakes.

They aren’t afraid to ask critical questions, tend to be bright, and are naturally more collaborative.

All have wisdom to learn from.

Personally, my interactions with members of the Greatest Generation have always been my favorite. I hope we never find ourselves in the situation which created them again though.

 

[Kdo5]

All that tells me is the players don't care about winning.

They care about the wrong thing.

That makes sense, giving the results weve seen.

Deal with it.


And that's great.

And all I asked was how does it equal wins? Cause that's literally all I care about.

If you took Jon Jones’s comments and it tells you that the players don’t care about winning because they are happy to have a black Head Coach? It tells me you are viewing this from an emotional point of view, not logical.

There is NOTHING wrong with his comment but you came to a nonsensical conclusion over it. Yikes.

 

[festy1986]

If you don't have diversity, then you have a monoculture, which means you put obstacles in front of talent because of who they are. I'm glad he wants to make the team culture accessible and encouraging to everyone. It'll only help.

We have a diverse owner who somehow managed to win 6 titles.

Did the previous coaching regimen leave titles on the line because they weren't monocultural enough?

If you took Jon Jones’s comments and it tells you that the players don’t care about winning because they are happy to have a black Head Coach? It tells me you are viewing this from an emotional point of view, not logical.

There is NOTHING wrong with his comment. Yikes.

If the players are happy to have a black coach, what does that mean?

Does it mean they would be unhappy with a white coach?

Yikes indeed.

 

[larek]

He has ALWAYS sounded like that.

Ya -

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Maybe his crack about the weight room was based on something he knows - I assume about the offensive side as he controls the defense.

We've seen a bunch of very enthusiastic comments from some key defensive players here. That's as good a read as we're going to get right now.

I'd add he's in a fantastic position to judge on BOB vs Josh McDaniels - he's seen them up close and personal on the other side of the practice field.

 

[larek]

He also sounds like he had a few before public speaking.

And before he gets massage

 

[Sam Bam Cunningham]

One thing is for sure, as a first press conference it was underwhelming. No strong clear articulate vision for future was voiced.
I think it was a missed opportunity to make a statement.
Too much bs corporate speak and not enough fist pounding testosterone.

I am certainly willing to give Mayo a chance but I hope the focus will not entirely be on DEI.

I wish he had said that he is focused on winning.

Do not care about developing interns

 

[Jlaff]

He never said that it was the most important thing about himself. He used the words "diversity" and noted race and highlighted why diversity is important. The fact that such a thing makes you uncomfortable and causes annoyance is a you problem, not a problem with Jerod or anything he said in the presser.

He seems to have the leadership and communication with players to have them buy in. The real question is our personnel choices and positional coaching/coordinators moving forward. I am unsure of what to expect but I'm very interested to see how Mayo performs. I like his confidence.

And I never said he said that being black was the most important thing about himself. I said he "acts like" it is.

You must've missed the part where he went on about how big a deal it was that he was a black coach, and that he DOES see race, and his talk about racism and diversity. Do you really think the "diversity" he was talking about wasn't really a euphemism for "more black people"?

I'm sitting here listening to this thinking "dude, you're on a 4-13 team, I just want to win football games."

 

[UGAPatsfan]

@Peachhead @JohnJH @Jlaff

Did you read this post that Ross just posted about Jonathan Jones? (one of our defensive leaders).


He literally states the importance of Mayo being black and having a black head coach. It’s important to the players and their buy-in. Again, deal with reality.

Agreed. I live, work, and raise children based out of Atlanta. I also travel the entire country and world.

Pretending color doesn’t matter to young athletes, many of whom are POC, is obtuse.

I coach sports. One of the ways I reach young people is to point them to people like Mayo, Mcdaniel, And anyone else who looks like them and has had success.

It removes built-in excuses and provides hope.

Nothing wrong with that.

And no, I don’t tell my own blue-eyed kids that they won’t succeed because “undeserving minorities will steal jobs” because it’s loser talk.

Be the best at what you do, it will work out.

One incredibly encouraging thing:

I’m around a LOT if kids…race isn’t much of a thing to them like it was to previous generations. They joke with each other about it, but that’s about it.

Kraft believes Mayo was the best.

Boston isn’t known for racial tolerance…but it loves a winner.

We’ll see how it goes.

If he wins, no one will care about any of this.

If he loses…it could get ugly.

 

[Triumph]

The "Toughest Division" in Football changes just about every year. Most people would agree that the AFC North has been one of the weakest divisions until recently. Mainly driven by the Ravens and Steelers. With the Bengals and Browns being the jokes of the league.

How many 8-8 seasons has Tomlin had?
Want to know why Tomlin's record is what it is? Because the Steelers have always had a running game. So it doesn't matter much who the QB is.

Tomlin has missed the play-offs 7 of 17 seasons. (58.8%)
6 of the 10 times that the Steelers made the play-offs they were 1 and done. (60%)

That's not something to strive for..

POTM

Tomlin wasted Bens career.

 

[Kdo5]

We have a diverse owner who somehow managed to win 6 titles.

Did the previous coaching regimen leave titles on the line because they weren't monocultural enough?


If the players are happy to have a black coach, what does that mean?

Does it mean they would be unhappy with a white coach?

Yikes indeed.

No but let me lay it out for you, nice and simply. Although it’s clear you don’t want to recognize why a black player could be happy that their black mentor got a premier coaching job:

As young black men, Mayo and those players have likely faced similar societal obstacles in the past. They understand each other and are happy for one another’s success. It is important to them and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

It doesn’t mean they are against white coaches. If Jon Jones was unhappy with Belichick for being white he wouldn’t be here for 7 going on 8 seasons.

It’s not an attack on white people that a black player is happy for a black coach. And it doesn’t mean they have a loser attitude which is what you just implied.

 

[upstater1]

I think we are talking about two different things. Players with character issues (Jones and Jackson great examples and Mayo indirectly mentioned them with his “what they do outside the building” comment), and normal young players who aren’t doing something “because coach said so” without understanding the “why”so they can buy in.

I’m almost 44.

So, interesting age because I was raised by combo of boomers/GenX, worked with and hired folks from those, Millennial, and all the way down to Gen Z, and am raising 3 Gen Alphas.

Each generation is different, and they all believe the others are the problem haha.

Honestly?

Z and younger are often my favorites once you filter through the flakes.

They aren’t afraid to ask critical questions, tend to be bright, and are naturally more collaborative.

All have wisdom to learn from.

Personally, my interactions with members of the Greatest Generation have always been my favorite. I hope we never find ourselves in the situation which created them again though.

Understood. There's also something to be said if you're an ex-player.

I'm only skeptical though when it comes to the coddling of players because football is a high-pressure sport, and the guys who can deal with a Belichick are likelier to succeed in high pressure moments. Even for the older generations, they never liked it when Belichick used them as fodder for the rest of the team, but they went through it.

My fear is that we're really talking about Mac Jones and how Belichick destroyed his confidence and psyche, and that one of the things that sold Kraft on Mayo is that, through personality alone, he could rehabilitate Jones.

 

[upstater1]

No but let me lay it out for you, nice and simply. Although it’s clear you don’t want to recognize why a black player could be happy that their black mentor got a premier coaching job:

As young black men, Mayo and those players have likely faced similar societal obstacles in the past. They understand each other and are happy for one another’s success. It is important to them and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

It doesn’t mean they are against white coaches. If Jon Jones was unhappy with Belichick for being white he wouldn’t be here for 7 going on 8 seasons.

It’s not an attack on white people that a black player is happy for a black coach. And it doesn’t mean they have a loser attitude which is what you just implied.

It's also simply the ration of Black head coaches to coaches and players. You look at the assistant coaching ranks and there's a lot more balance. It's only at the HC level where there is a severe imbalance.

 

[festy1986]

No but let me lay it out for you, nice and simply. Although it’s clear you don’t want to recognize why a black player could be happy that their black mentor got a premier coaching job:

As young black men, Mayo and those players have likely faced similar societal obstacles in the past. They understand each other and are happy for one another’s success. It is important to them and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

It doesn’t mean they are against white coaches. If Jon Jones was unhappy with Belichick for being white he wouldn’t be here for 7 going on 8 seasons.

It’s not an attack on white people that a black player is happy for a black coach. And it doesn’t mean they have a loser attitude which is what you just implied.

You keep saying the same things over and over. As if to say you think we're too dense to understand it.

I implied very strongly and let me just flat out day it.

If the players care what color their coach is then their priorities aren't right.

You seem very triggered by what you perceived as lack of tolerance or understanding. I'm sorry you can't have a nuanced discussion about why it can both be important to Mayo while also being completely and utterly irrelevant

The color of his skin isn't gonna translate into wins one way or the other so again, it was fair to question why it matters.

I know why it matters and I don't care.

 

[archstanton543]

Agreed. I live, work, and raise children based out of Atlanta. I also travel the entire country and world.
Boston isn’t known for racial tolerance…but it loves a winner.

You mustn't have visited Boston in the last 20+ years.