Jerod Mayo’s wife appeared to call out Patriots on social media after firing
"I couldn’t even fathom all the lies we’ve read that are being told to save face."
Jerod Mayo has yet to publicly address his firing from the Patriots, but someone close to him addressed the matter on Friday.
Chantel Mayo, the wife of the former Patriots head coach, seemed to criticize the Patriots in a string of posts to her Instagram story on Friday.
“It never even crossed our minds to tell the truth…,” Chantel Mayo began. “But I couldn’t even fathom all the lies we’ve read that are being told to save face. What happened to the class?????”
“We’ve been taking the high road and letting everyone do their thing since Sunday,” Mayo continued. “But playing with someone’s name won’t be tolerated. I bet the fake stories will stop before the real ones start… 👀”
In a separate post to her Instagram story, Mayo shared a quote that read, “The attack against you only indicates the potential that’s within you.”
While Mayo never directly mentioned the Patriots, what she wrote seems to be in response to what happened with her husband over the past week. For much of the 2024 season, it was reported that Mayo wouldn’t be fired after his first year as head coach. However, a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter hours before Sunday’s regular-season finale indicated that Mayo was more likely to be fired than retained.
Just over an hour after the Patriots’ win over the Bills, the team announced it was firing Mayo. A day later, team owner Robert Kraft told reporters that he felt “terrible for Jerod because I put him in an untenable situation.” He also added that “this whole situation is on me.”
In the days since Mayo’s firing and Kraft taking accountability for the Patriots’ second straight 4-13 season, there have been multiple stories that have framed New England’s former head coach as an incompetent leader. A story by The Athletic‘s Chad Graff shared an anecdote of Mayo opting to hang out with players in the back of the team plane rather than study film following the Patriots’ loss to the Cardinals in December.
“Look, there are a lot of ways to do the job,” a member of the team told Graff. “It’s not that Jerod’s was definitely wrong. But I can’t say I’ve seen that before.”
Meanwhile, a story from The Boston Herald‘s Andrew Callahan and Doug Kyed shared that Mayo lacked a consistent message and discipline with the team.
“He kept talking about these North Stars,” a member of the team told the Boston Herald. “And all of us in the building were like, ‘What are they? Can you share them with us? What’s the goal? What’s the vision here?'”
“Discipline is mandatory when you have a young team, so we don’t try to cut corners or slip through the cracks and stuff like that,” a player shared with the Boston Herald. “And I feel like that’s really what happened (with Mayo).”
When Kraft explained the reasoning for Mayo’s firing on Monday, he didn’t mention anything behind-the-scenes for the “untenable” situation that he decided couldn’t continue.
“I don’t like losing,” Kraft said. “I don’t like losing the way we lost. Things were not developing the way we would have liked. It was time to move on.”
Now, the Patriots are searching for their third head coach in as many seasons. They completed their fourth head coach interview on Friday, speaking with Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson a day after meeting with former Titans coach Mike Vrabel.
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