Throughout his first season as an NFL head coach, Jerod Mayo has been open and casual with the media — perhaps a little too casual.
Things were a little bit different during the New England Patriots coach’s postgame press conference on Sunday. After the team’s tight loss to the Buffalo Bills, Mayo’s comment were noticeably dry — almost Bill Belichick-like.
That didn’t escape the notice of the crew on WBZ’s “Fifth Quarter” postgame show. After Mayo ended his press conference, WBZ broadcaster Steve Burton highlighted how little the coach gave away at the podium.
“Short, concise, learned a lot, especially from two weeks ago when he was up there at the podium,” Burton said.
Christian Fauria, who won two Super Bowls as a tight end in New England, took it a step further. The TV/radio personality suggested that “somebody” was working with Mayo to clean up his comments and give less to the media.
“Oh, somebody’s been working with him,” Fauria said. “Because everyone reads too much into what you say. You’re constantly trying to re-explain yourself. So he wasn’t giving anybody anything to write.”
Under Belichick, the Patriots had a strong reputation as a team that would give little away to the media. It’s often been suggested that the team pressured players and coaches to say little to reporters. Fauria did not specify where in the organization he thinks the pressure on Mayo came from.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss then chimed in, pointing out that Mayo steered away from taking any positives of claiming moral victories in Sunday’s loss to the Bills.
“The biggest message to me was that he’s saying ‘Don’t feel good about a loss. Don’t ever feel good about a loss,‘” Reiss said.
“Even though I think the three of us here might feel pretty good about the loss based on what we expected going into the game,” he added.”
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