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The only thing you need to read about ex-Patriots coach Jerod Mayo and it is very straightforward

Monday 1/6/25

New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo was relieved of his duties shortly after the Patriots--in what is now standard inept Patriots fashion--tripped their way into a win against the Buffalo Bills, costing themselves the first pick of the 2025 draft in the process, but that's not why Mayo was fired.


I'd been saying this was going to happen for some time, and here we have a case or Right Guy being right again. What I also could have told you that in the wake of this firing people would say it was because Mayo is Black, because of course people are going to say this, and those who do are the actual racists of society. Jerod Mayo absolutely deserved to be fired, just like never should have had the job in the first place, and he may never be a head coach again, because he's not qualified to be one and he doesn't have the aptitude. Here is all you need to know about Mayo, his stint as Patriots head coach, why he had to go, and why he went.


People are saying the Patriots wanted the white guy--Mike Vrabel--all along, so they hired the Black guy as a stop-gap, knowing he had no chance of success with that roster. Black guy as sacrificial lamb.


These people are idiots. They talk out of their ass. The anus is the mouth. That's how they go about their lives, utilizing their anus-mouth. Mayo was promised this job years ago when he went with Robert Kraft on a trip to Israel, what Kraft always refers to as the Holy Land and where Mayo romanced him. Mayo had no head coaching experience. Next to no coaching experience at all at that point. Again, this is years ago. Because Robert Kraft is a fool. A directionless, needy, gross man who has to have his ass kissed. He's pathetic. Wife dies, he needed those hand jobs at the massage parlor before flying out to playoff games, needed a girlfriend whoever many decades his junior, needs to beg to be let into the Hall of Fame, gets bamboozled by a psychopath in Aaron Hernandez. He's a weak man.


Mayo understood this about Robert Kraft. Normally, Kraft likes to call white savior QBs his son--Bledsoe, Brady--but if you tongue his taint enough, he'll call you a son so long as you're an enthusiastic and constant tonguer. Mayo won jack shit as a Patriots player. Think of all the Super Bowls they won. He never won one. He was a background player. I mention that because he wasn't much on the field. He seemed, though, to have this reputation that outpaced who he actually was. And he knew what Kraft wanted and how Kraft is wired.


In a move of sheer blinding idiocy, Kraft promised Mayo--for no reasons other than the tonguing--the head coaching job when Bill Belichick left (presumably of his own volition). That is, he said, in essence, "When Bill goes, years from now, you will be the head coach, I promise."


Mayo was thus empowered and entitled. Word leaked out that he became a man on an island; that he undercut Belichick; and that he walked around the facility with a baseball bat to intimidate others.


When I heard that, I thought this is never, ever going to work with this guy here. Does that sound like a solid coach in waiting to you? Or does it sound like a manipulative, immature asshole with behavior issues?


Belichick got so bad at his job that he sped up the process because he needed to be fired himself. He should have been out after 2020, but Kraft waited too long. When I was saying all along in these pages what the deal was. Correctly. I told you all about Mac Jones in real-time. When everyone was hyping Mac Jones, I said, "This guy doesn't have the arm to be an NFL quarterback." Or the make-up.


Belichick was finally deservedly fired after last season, and Mayo was installed, as per Kraft's promise--they didn't even conduct a hiring process. That's stunning. Now, ask yourself this: Would any other team in the NFL have made Jerod Mayo their head coach? A guy who had never been a head coach at any level? A guy who had never even been a coordinator? The answer is hell fucking no. And let me tell you, Robert Kraft loved that Mayo was Black and played that up--for Robert Kraft's own benefit--at the press conference (after which Mayo then played it up in this throat-clearing, self-aggrandizing testimony to himself). How progressive he was. I watched him sit up there and it was like he was campaigning for why he should be in the Hall of Fame. An odious man.


But given that the job was promised to Mayo years ago--when Vrabel was coaching the Titans--he was never meant to be a one-and-done hire. People--being idiots--cite the Patriots' 4-13 record from this season and the lack of talent on the roster. Vince Lombardi could coach this team and they'd be awful! Yes, fine. The roster blows. It's the worst in the league. But the record isn't so much the issue as all of these other obvious things to anyone who takes their head out of their ass and watches. The record was not the issue. The team wasn't getting any better. And the operation was a shit show.


The Patriots beat the Bengals--which I said on here was going to happen--in Week 1. After the game, Mayo went off. Boasting over and over again, peacocking, strutting, talking about the team running the hill during training camp, touting himself. And I thought, again, you are not a head coach. You're going to make an ass out of yourself all year. And it's going to get worse and worse.


I also knew that the Patriots would then be getting slammed from that point on--I knew this before he opened his mouth after that game; I just thought they'd catch the Bengals sleeping and they did (with that Week 1 Sunday nap costing Cincinnati a postseason berth)--and might not win another game.


The defense got worse. The team had no discipline. So many stupid penalties. Mayo couldn't manage the clock at all. Every week at a press conference--or what seemed like every week--he said something either stupid or detrimental to the team. He took no responsibility, and not only did he blame players--which is one thing--he started selling out his staff.


Now, they suck, too, and all need to go. But you can't stand at the podium and sell your coaches down the river.


Mayo just stood on the sidelines. What did you ever see him do but stand there? What was he doing, this figurehead of a hire? No clue, in way over his head, no plan, no show of leadership. You think this guy was going to dial up some defenses? No way. He just stood there. And then, after the game, he created drama. And was a pouty, passive aggressive, pass-the-buck bitch.


The team didn't show improvement. Everyone says that in Drake Maye the Patriots have this great quarterback. I am not so sure. And to Mayo's credit, he wanted to start Maye when others--including his OC and the front office--did not. That was, in my view, the one thing he had right.


But then you have all of this cap room for next year, you have what should have been the first pick in the draft and is instead the fourth, you sucked, you got worse than you were the year before when you were terrible--the defense got much worse--and had Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe--Jones and Zappe, for goodness sake--as your quarterbacks, and with this chance--this key chance--to start to put things right--you're going to leave this guy in place to oversee the on-field operation? And that group in there, who should all be blown out today?


Kraft saw those empty seats at Gillette. He thought about his Hall of Fame campaign. He did whatever he had to do to get himself to think, to whatever degree, that he made a mistake, and rather than allow that mistake to become a bigger mistake, he pulled a Barney Fife and nipped it in the bud. That's what happened.


In summary: Mayo, inept. No business being a coach. The record doesn't matter. Anyone could see--if they didn't have their head up their ass--what the problems were, and those are the problems we know about. Who knows what else was going on. But these problems were plenty.


Tell me this: Why should Mayo have stayed on as the coach? And the answer isn't because one year isn't enough. Tell me a strength. What does he do well? Name one thing. People will want to say, "They played hard for him in the last game!" Oh, bullshit. That was a preseason game. You had a third stringers out there who want to stick in the league. Of course they're going to play hard. You don't think Joe Milton wanted to perform well? He might not play again for a year. Or ever. That's such an overrated thing--"They played hard for him!" Yes, some teams quit. But even most teams that suck don't quit because guys want contracts, they want to stay in the league, they want to land in a better spot for themselves.


But what do you think Mayo excels at? And the answer is nothing. No one has a thing they can say. Coaching up the defense? Nope. Clearly. The guy had no feel for the game. And if you ask me, I don't think that's an experience thing, as in, "He'd have picked it up over time."


I don't think this guy has the aptitude to be a head coach. Or a successful--as in strategically impactful--defensive coordinator for that matter. I think he's a linebackers coach at best. And that's really only because he played the position for as long as he did and was around some of the coaches he was.


You had to move. Kraft fucked up in the first place. Because he's not a very sharp guy. He thinks he's brighter than other people, too. Note how often he starts a sentence with some sweeping statement about himself--which usually takes the form of "In my life" or "In my career" or "In my time in business"--like he's in some modern day Iliad. The seen-it-all guy, the journeyer guy, he of the epic life. And he's an easily manipulated guy because he's so needy. Kraft was the bigger problem. Mayo was just slimy. He got the job the way he got it, and then when it was obvious to anyone paying attention that he couldn't do the job, he lost the job. Simple.


Totally not surprising sidebar: Tony Dungy said Mayo should have come back, citing the first-year records of people like Tom Landry and Bill Parcells. Even by football standards, Dungy is some kind of stupid. I remember years ago being floored by his near-total lack of intellect. Very Tony Dungy to say this. That Tony Dungy could be a longtime coach in the NFL should tell you a lot.


What should Jerod Mayo do next? If he wants to be a head coach again, he should work towards being one. Earn it. Crazy concept, right? I know--people in the NFL get handed shit. Not like in publishing, but yeah, you have a lot of dumb guys who get hooked up. These aren't brilliant people. Shoot for being smarter than the rest of them. Get a job as a linebackers coach for a few years. Talk to coaches. All of the coaches--not just the defensive coaches. Learn. Work. Put the time in. Get better. Work your way up. Be successful. Get a better gig. Become a coordinator with a vision that gets implemented and leads to success. Innovate. Take a team as the DC to the Super Bowl. Get another head coaching gig. Don't make the mistakes you made before. Make sure you're ready.


To me, though, the story is Kraft. The bumbler. There was nothing to suggest Mayo was qualified for this job. Kraft liked how he kissed his ass. Hall of Fame owner? Blow that out your own ass, I say. What a black mark against Kraft. I don't feel bad for Mayo because I don't feel bad for weasels. He weasled his way to a job he didn't deserve. And things went accordingly.



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