FOXBOROUGH — As Jerod Mayo perched in front of a sea of cameras, his easy confidence was palpable.
Still just 37 years old, the newly-anointed Patriots coach and former All-Pro linebacker broke the ice early when team owner Robert Kraft mispronounced the name of one of his brothers. He affectionally referred to Kraft as “Thundercat” throughout a 39-minute introductory press conference and hit most of the expected notes.
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Mayo gave “huge mentor” Bill Belichick his flowers, but emphasized that he’s not looking to imitate the legendary coach. He even lionized the importance of personal titles, which his former boss often showed disdain for.
“I’m not trying to be Bill. I think that Bill is his own man. If you can’t tell by now, I’m a little bit different even up here,” said Mayo, who seemed at ease throughout the press conference.
Mayo spoke about his deep love of coaching, and asserted that it isn’t simply something that he wants to do, but it’s what he’s been put here to do.
“My calling is to be a teacher and to develop people,” Mayo said. “And help them see pretty much what they don’t want to see, but they need to see. So my job has always been — that is my calling.”
Inheriting a 4-13 team with an outgunned roster, Mayo welcomed the challenges ahead in just about every fashion imaginable. With an offensive overhaul staring him down, the first-time head coach is ready to “rebuild some relationships, knock down silos, and collaborate.”
However, the most impressive part of Mayo’s press conference had nothing to do with football. It came on the heels of a question about race. Mayo spoke about the importance of being the franchise’s first Black head coach, and Kraft fielded a question about what that meant to him personally.
“Let me say this to you: I’m really colorblind,” Kraft said, “in terms of, I know what I feel like on Sunday when we lose, and I can just tell you that after my family, my passion is with the New England Patriots… winning at the Patriots is my passion. I want to get the best people I can get. I chose the best head coach for this organization. He happens to be a man of color. But I chose him because I believe he’s best to do the job.”
As graciously as possible, Mayo followed by saying the exact opposite of his boss. Though he’d been asked about his relationship with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Mayo circled back gracefully to clarify how he felt about the topic of colorblindness.
“I appreciate Thunder (Kraft) and the organization selecting me to be a Black head coach,” Mayo began. “I would say what Thunder just talked about, that was in the locker room. You want your locker room to be pretty diverse, and you want the world to look like that. What I will say, though, is I do see color because I believe if you don’t see color, you can’t see racism. Whatever happens, Black, white, disabled person… I want you to be able to go up to those people and really understand those people. It goes back to whatever it is: Black, white, yellow, it really doesn’t matter, but it does matter, so we can try to fix the problem that we all know we have.”
Mayo could have simply stepped over the topic but instead addressed it in the most professional fashion possible. He didn’t embarrass his 82-year-old boss, but wasn’t afraid to stand up and voice his own diverging opinion either — and firmly.
There’s a monumental task ahead of Mayo; he’s replacing the most successful coach in NFL history. But during Thursday’s press conference, Mayo made it clear that he knows what he believes, and he’s not going to shy away from sharing those convictions, even if it leads to challenging someone as important as Kraft in front of dozens of onlookers. Following a legend like Belichick, that self-confidence will prove critical.
