‘You don’t get to say nothing at this point’: Richard Sherman criticized Jerod Mayo for calling Patriots ‘soft’
"You have a part in this. You have a part in them not stopping the run and by not putting the blame on you, you lose respect of the players.”
Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” studio crew weighed in on Jerod Mayo’s “soft” comment: Bill Belichick isn’t the only analyst questioning Jerod Mayo’s decision to call his team “soft” following the Patriots’ 32-16 loss to the Jaguars on Sunday.
Multiple ex-players on Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” postgame studio show criticized the Patriots head coach for his comment. Former Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman said that Mayo doesn’t really have the pedigree yet to call out his team in the way that he did.
“It’s frustrating to hear that because if it’s Bill Belichick, an acclaimed head coach, not that Jerod Mayo didn’t have an accomplished [playing] career, but you’re a rookie head coach,” Sherman said. “You don’t get to say nothing at this point until you earn the right to say things. You earn the right by winning, scheming, showing your scheme is effective. We don’t even know if your identity and culture is effective.”
Mayo, of course, is in the midst of his first season as an NFL head coach. The start of his Patriots tenure hasn’t gone well, with New England falling to 1-6 after the loss to the Jaguars.
While it was expected that New England would be among the worst teams in the league entering the year, they’ve gotten worse defensively. They’re 26th in the league in yards allowed (359.6 per game) and 22nd in rushing yards allowed (136.1 per game). Last season, they ranked seventh and fourth in those respective categories. The Patriots also allowed the fewest yards per carry in 2023.
The Patriots’ fall in those defensive stats was a reason why Belichick pushed back against Mayo’s “soft” comment earlier in the week, mentioning a handful of players who are still on the team from last year. Sherman also thinks that the Patriots’ defensive regression is more on the coaching than anything else.
“That’s why Bill Belichick came out and was like, ‘These are the same guys we had last year, and we stopped the run fine,'” Sherman said. “Now [Mayo’s] got the same guys, and you’re not getting it done at a high level. That says more about you than the players.
“Then saying your players are soft lacks accountability, it lacks personal accountability. You have a part in this. You have a part in them not stopping the run and by not putting the blame on you, you lose respect of the players.”
Belichick and Sherman glossed over a few notable injuries and absences the Patriots are dealing with on defense. Defensive tackle Christian Barmore hasn’t played this season due to blood clots. Linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley, who led the team in tackles last season, suffered a season-ending injury in Week 2. Safety Jabrill Peppers has missed the last three games after being arrested earlier in October.
Still, Sherman wasn’t the only ex-player on the “Thursday Night Football” crew to have an issue with Mayo’s “soft” comment. Long-time offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth wished Mayo kept the comment within closed doors.
“In the public, to reporters, you don’t need to address me,” Whitworth said on how he would view Mayo’s comment as a player. “You wanna address me? Address me to my face. Treat me like a grown man. If you think I’m soft, tell me I’m soft. … You better be able to prove [to] me I’m soft when you tell me I’m soft.
“It’s not coaching, it’s not leading. It’s not challenging,” Whitworth added.
Mayo clarified his comment a day after the loss, telling WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” that his team was “playing soft.”
“If you look at the first going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place, and we still had the same players, and we just got to play that way,” Mayo said.
We’ll see how the Patriots respond to Mayo’s comment when they host the Jets on Sunday.
Trivia
The Patriots take on the Jets this Sunday as they hope to avoid getting swept by their divisional rival. When was the last time the Patriots lost both meetings to the Jets in a season?
(Hint: Tom Brady wasn’t the team’s quarterback.)
Schedule and results
The Celtics improved to 2-0 with a dominant win over the Wizards on Thursday, winning 122-102. Boston will remain on the road over the weekend, heading to Detroit to take on the Pistons on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Bruins, meanwhile, fell to the Stars on Thursday, 5-2. Boston fell to 3-4-1 on the season with the loss. The Bruins host the Maple Leafs at 7 p.m. on Thursday night.
On the gridiron, Boston College hosts Louisville on Friday. The Eagles are looking to end their two-game losing streak.
Finally, the Patriots close out the weekend when they host the Jets. Kickoff for Sunday’s game is at 1 p.m. ET.
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- Takeaways: Jaylen Brown, Celtics continue dominant start with blowout over Wizards
- Eddie House breaks down why Jayson Tatum’s shot ‘looks a whole lot better’
- Takeaways: Bruins’ attitudes need a ‘healthier direction’
- Here’s a look at the Celtics’ NBA Cup court floor
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- 5 questions with Colin Barnicle, director of the 2004 Red Sox docuseries
The refs might have missed a key call in Vikings-Rams
Minnesota had a chance to tie Thursday’s game against Los Angeles as it trailed, 28-20, in the final minutes. On a second-and-10 play from the Vikings’ own 5-yard line with 1:36 remaining, quarterback Sam Darnold was taken down by Rams linebacker Byron Young in the end zone for a safety. However, it was evident that Young grabbed Darnold’s facemask to make the tackle, which should’ve resulted in a 15-yard penalty. A facemask penalty wasn’t called, though, giving the Rams two points and the back to seal the win.
Referee Tre Blake admitted that he missed the penalty call after the game, explaining that he didn’t have a good view of the missed penalty.
“The quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me, so I did not have a good look at it,” Blake said in the pool report. “I did not have a look, and I did not see the face mask being pulled, obviously.”
Daily highlight
Payton Pritchard made another heave on Thursday, draining a three-quarters court shot when the horn for the third quarter sounded in the Celtics’ win over the Wizards. The shot didn’t count as Pritchard released his shot after the buzzer, but it adds to his compilation of heaves.
On this day
Seventeen years ago, the Red Sox took a 2-0 series lead over the Rockies in the 2007 World Series. After a blowout 13-1 win in Game 1, Boston won a much closer matchup in Game 2. Colorado took its first, and only, lead of the series in the first inning, going up 1-0 in the first inning. The Red Sox scored a run in the fourth and fifth innings, with Mike Lowell’s RBI double in the fifth serving as the game-winning run. Jonathan Papelbon got a four-out save to secure a 2-1 win, which included throwing out Matt Holliday on a pickoff attempt.
The Red Sox went on to sweep the Rockies for their second World Series title in a four-year stretch.
Trivia answer: 2000
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