Imagine this: You go to work, have a great day as your team puts forth a winning effort, the fourth victory in a dismal season that produced 13 defeats, and before you get to celebrate, you are fired! That’s how business was done by the New England Patriots on January 5, 2025.
The National Football League team that created and marketed the saying the “Patriot Way” has proven, once again, that they may not be the family organization they claim to be. The sudden firing of head coach Jerod Mayo is the latest example of how the team conducts its business.
Owner Robert Kraft and son Jonathan sit at the head of this Patriot business and must take the brunt of criticism for what happens. They do the hiring and firing of employees as they run the day-to-day operation of this team. The team owner, who spoke to the press, said, “This whole situation is on me.” Kraft said Monday in Foxborough, “I feel terrible for Jerod because I put him in an untenable situation. I know that he has all the tools as a head coach to be successful in this league. He just needed more time before taking the job.”
They have the right to hire and fire anyone they feel is not doing the job to their satisfaction. They hired Jerod Mayo and have now fired him because of his team’s 4-13 record in his first season at the helm of their franchise. But a deeper look into this situation shows that Mayo had little or no chance to succeed. Upon taking the job, following the dismissal of long-time Pats coach Bill Belichick, Mayo had to know that he was being handed a grenade, with no pin, to fall on. He inherited a talent-depleted team and was expected to produce victories.
The first Black coach and 15th in the team’s history had been groomed in the Patriot Way as a player and an assistant coach under Belichick. But was he prepared for the rigors of being a head coach in the National Football League?
The answer to that question is now in evidence. Mayo got off to a shaky start when he named Jacoby Brissett as the team’s starting quarterback coming out of training camp, even after his public declaration that Drake Maye, the team’s number three draft choice, had outplayed the veteran Brissett.
On August 26, Mayo was quoted as saying, “It’s true competition, and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby.” Upon examining that statement, Mayo, I feel, was not making the ultimate coaching decisions for his team. Patriots’ fans bought his reasoning that Maye should be protected from an offensive line whose play could only be described as offensive. Eleven changes in the Patriots offensive line over the course of the season backed up Mayo’s thinking. By the time Maye was elevated to the starting quarterback position in game six of the season, too much damage had been done to keep his head from blowing up from the grenade in the coach’s hand.
Owner Robert Kraft handed Jerod Mayo that grenade. The Patriots owner refused to spend salary cap money, roughly $38 million in 2024 to improve his team. That amount now stands at $126,129,220, the highest in the NFL for the 2025 season. Why spend money to make your team competitive when it is easier to fire a low-paid coach who was just happy to get the job?
Mayo also hurt himself when he called his team soft following their 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in week six, Maye’s first game as a starter. The Pats opened a 10-0 lead in that contest only to give up 25 straight points to a Jaguars team that was just about as bad as they were.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, Coach Mayo took criticism from his former coach on national television. Bill Belichick, who had been summarily fired by Bob Kraft after running the Patriots franchise into the ground during his last five years, took issue with Mayo’s soft comments about a roster made up of many of the same players he had coached the previous season. “I’m kind of hurt for those guys, because to call them soft, they are not soft,” said Belichick.
Thus, the hand grenade of Jerod Mayo’s unemployment was ticking down to it final seconds. It went off a little more than an hour after his team’s not so surprising 23-16 victory over a Buffalo Bills team that rested most of its starters. Mayo’s departing gift win was somewhat typical for the Patriots, who lost the number one pick in this year’s collegiate draft, settling in the fourth spot after the win.
And while many people feel that Mayo did not receive a fair chance, I look back to the day he was hired to replace Bill Belichick. I told anyone that would listen that Bob Kraft hired Jerod Mayo because he was inexpensive. And following the heavy salary that was paid to Belichick, Mayo was a bargain. Loyal members of the Patriot family have expressed dismay over Mayo’s firing after just one season. Former Patriot great Rob Gronkowski said, “I was shocked by the decision to fire Mayo after just one season. I think it was unfair to Coach Mayo. He never had a chance to develop as a head coach.”
The hue and cry over his dismissal will quickly fade as the Patriots move on to their next head coaching hire. The word here is that Mike Vrabel, another former Patriot player from the Belichick era, is one of the top candidates for the job. The former Titans coach has been working as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns this season. But unless Vrabel gets an offensive mindset in his system along with ownership who will stop making excuses and apologies to the team’s loyal fan base, he will be doomed to suffer the same fate as Jerod Mayo, a loyal soldier who fell on his grenade for his team and the Patriot Way.
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