Meet the new boss.
Most definitely not the old boss.
Like more and louder music, often playing all throughout practice, instead of just the warmup portion.
A significant dropoff in the amount of Jersey Rock, from almost constant to nearly non-existent.
Fewer celebrities on the sidelines.
A scheduled day off in the middle of practices, and so on.
Or the entire offense would.
It didn’t even need to be said.
It was standard operation procedure.
But yesterday they just lined up and tried to do it right the next time.
A testament to Jerod Mayo’s belief in the Gentle Parenting approach to head coaching in the NFL.
But since then, there’s been an even greater example of how the Mayo Administration is conducting business.
Taking the new NFL reality on the new NFL reality’s terms.
As with Highlander, there can be only one.
And the one just got fired because it was no longer working for him.
And make no mistake, this was not the Pats first bad report card.
And they didn’t address it because the head coach actively did not want to.
He adjusted with the culture on a lot of things.
But there were limits to how much he was willing to keep up with the times.
He still wanted to keep a foot in the glorious past.
To expect his players to conduct themselves with a Spartan-like self-denial.
And it worked, obviously.
Until it didn’t.
Until a couple of sub-.500 seasons and more undoubtedly coming with the way things were trending made change necessary.
So Mayo has listened to the rank-and-file of union of which he was a part of for eight seasons.
And some have mediation rooms and yoga classes.
You’ve got to adapt the environment you’re in.
With any luck, it’ll work.
