Felger & Mazz: Mayo press conference was excuse to take shots at Belichick
On Wednesday’s Felger & Mazz program, the guys react to Jerod Mayo’s introductory press conference announcing him as next head coach of the New England Patriots.
Reaction to Jerod Mayo Introductory Presser
Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.
Felger: Jerod Mayo said he thinks that job titles are important.
Jim Murray: Yeah. You’re holding guys back. That comment, to me, might have been like the coldest one from Jerod Mayo. There are points in this thing that I heard. I’m sure he’s appreciative that he got drafted here. And there’s some level of appreciation for Bill Belichick. But he thinks Belichick is a dick. That’s how that comment came off to me.
Belichick wasn’t giving people titles. He didn’t give Mayo a title. He probably held Mayo back at one point when he maybe could have been a head coach earlier in his career. Belichick refused to give real titles for whatever the hell reason. I think there’s real resentment there.
Felger: From what guys like Curran and Perry have been reporting, Mayo turned down the defensive coordinator title this last go around. If he took the defensive coordinator title and wanted to get the hell out of here, the only way out would be a head coach. If he wanted to get out of here and be a defensive coordinator, not taking the title last year would allow him to leave for promotion and break his contract.
Mazz: Yes, it gives him a little leverage.
Felger: Still, there’s been way too much dicking around with titles here for 25 years. Bill Belichick claims he was never big on titles. Boy, were they obsessed with titles. And you knew it because they didn’t give them out. If it’s that important, do you want to name the guy the OC or the DC.
Jim Murray: And you know, he was probably doing it because he either didn’t want to give up some power or lose some financial aspect.
Mazz: Or both.
Jim Murray: Crappy things to do.
Mazz: It’s also a way for Bill to keep people under his thumb. You know, Bill’s big on that. Like he’s in charge and keeping you under his thumb. I’ll tell you when you deserve the title.
Felger: So again, there was a lot of that today, where there were just veiled shots at Bill and how things were run. We’re going to break down silos. We’re going to be collaborative. We’re going to break down walls. We’re going to repair our relationship. You know that whole thing.
Which I agree they need. They do. Someone still has to make the big decisions. And that they have to have people there who are qualified. The whole message here was that they’ve got a really talented staff, and Bill was holding them back. I do think that Bill was a problem in the end, but I never thought he had a talented staff. So, I guess we’re going to find out. We’re going to find out what that narrative is about.
Segment Audio
Ryan Beaton is a producer for 985thesportshub.com. You can follow Ryan at @ry_beaton on Twitter.
Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!
Jerod Mayo explains how he's not Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick ruled over everything with the New England Patriots. His way or the highway, like no one else in Boston sports history.
Jerod Mayo hopes to turn that entire thing on its head.
As he gave his “I don’t want to teach them what to think, I want to teach them how to think.”
Head Coach Jerod Mayo on building the Patriots culture. pic.twitter.com/pkEYdfuIoQ
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 17: (L-R) Owner Robert Kraft and newly appointed head coach Jerod Mayo of the New England Patriots speak to the media during a press conference at Gillette Stadium on January 17, 2024 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
And in the case of his predecessor, Mayo ostensibly wants to be the anti-Belichick in that he doesn’t want to dictate, to lord over, to mold everyone else into his image, to let things erode from within.
Belichick is certainly a brilliant football mind and earned the right to impart his knowledge on those under him, but it became clear that his philosophies had stagnated and his power had become too concentrated into his hands. He’d become too powerful for his own good.
Mayo is hitting the reset button on that – and doing the opposite.
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 17: Newly appointed head coach Jerod Mayo of the New England Patriots speaks to the media during a press conference at Gillette Stadium on January 17, 2024 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
“One thing you’ll notice about me in our interaction, as we continue to go, is I don’t like echo chambers,” Mayo said. “I want people around me that are going to question my ideas or question the way we have done things in the past. Because realistically, this game’s a lot different than when I was drafted in 2008. At the same time, that’s why I try to spend so much time in developing young men and young women. So they know, I don’t want to teach them what to think. I want to teach them how to think.
“Once we get to that point, I think we can get back to where we need to be at the top. And I’m an open book. I’m honored, ready to go. And I’m excited to be the next head coach of the Patriots.”
