Why Patriots trainer Jerod Mayo is a large rent for the NFL — and Boston

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All over a information convention Wednesday introducing Jerod Mayo as the brand new trainer of the New England Patriots, Mayo, the primary Black head trainer the Patriots have ever had, put the NFL on realize that he’s now not too timid to talk about race, now not even after the crew's proprietor had simply mentioned he was once “really colorblind” when hiring Mayo. 

What I can say, even though, is I do see colour as a result of I imagine should you don’t see colour, you'll be able to’t see racism.

New england patriots head trainer jerod mayo

“I want to get the best people I can get,” Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft mentioned in introducing Mayo. (The franchise and Invoice Belichick, who gained six Tremendous Bowls as trainer of the Patriots, mutually parted techniques closing week.) “I chose the best head coach for this organization,” Kraft mentioned. He mentioned Mayo “happens to be a man of color. But I chose him because I believe he’s best to do the job.”

“You want your locker room to be pretty diverse, and you want the world to look like that,” Mayo, a former Patriots megastar linebacker who’s now the NFL’s youngest trainer, mentioned. “What I will say, though, is I do see color because I believe if you don’t see color, you can’t see racism,” Mayo mentioned. Later he added that seeing colour is vital in order that “we can try to fix the problem that we all know we have.”

The “we” there may similarly check with the Nationwide Soccer League and to the town of Boston.

To mention the NFL has a race and variety drawback is to state the most obvious. In line with knowledge from 2021, 71% of NFL had been gamers of colour however, counting Mayo, there are best 5 Black head coaches. (A 6th, the Las Vegas Raiders' Antonio Pierce, is serving as trainer in an period in-between capability.) In 2022, Bryan Flores, who's Black and a former trainer of the Miami Dolphins, alleged in a lawsuit that the league “is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation.”

However Mayo being one in all a handful of Black coaches within the NFL is best part the tale. The opposite part is the place he’ll be training. “You’d better believe being the first Black coach here in New England means a lot to me,” he mentioned Wednesday.

For a franchise this is loved within the Boston space (complete confession: I've been rooting for the Patriots because the overdue Nineteen Eighties) and hated with reference to all over else, Mayo’s phrases run deep. No person can forget about how racism has permeated the area for many years.

Mayo being one in all a handful of Black coaches within the NFL is best part the tale. The opposite part is the place he’ll be training.

There are a number of examples from the sports activities global to turn out it. In 2022, LeBron James known as Boston Celtics lovers “racist as f---,” calling it his least favourite position to play. Celtics guard Jaylen Brown has said that a part of the fan base is “extremely toxic,” even though he notes that it does now not observe to all Boston lovers. A lot has been chronicled about Boston’s racist historical past in sports activities, and it doesn’t lend a hand that the sports activities radio scene lacks any actual variety, and there are nonetheless incidents to verify the overdue Invoice Russell’s description of the town as a “flea market of racism.”

In December, the town of Boston in the end apologized to the 2 Black males falsely accused of killing Carol Stuart in 1989. The strange paintings from HBO and The Boston Globe concerning the Stuart homicide spread out a vital dialog about how racist the Boston space in reality was once and, in some circumstances, nonetheless is.

Seeing a photograph of Mayo together with his circle of relatives at the entrance web page of a sports activities phase exuding pleasure could be a image of what's imaginable. In Boston, this sort of photograph is a unprecedented sight.

Predictably, those that by no means see race in even the obvious examples of racism temporarily took to social media after Mayo’s introductory remarks, calling him an “ignorant bigot” who, they foolishly declare, betrayed the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, they introduced up King’s extensively misconstrued “content of their character” quote. The Patriots’ legitimate tweet of Mayo’s phrases display a barrage of court cases in opposition to wokeness and variety.

What they don’t say is that the distinction of Black gamers within the heralded Patriots dynasty has lengthy been overlooked. Once we recall to mind probably the most a hit Patriots to have ruled the mainstream tradition, each at the box and rancid, they all are white. Tom Brady. Rob Gronkowski. Julian Edelman. Belichick. They all are world manufacturers in their very own proper.

 Disregarded of the effusive acclaim are Black gamers like Devin McCourty and Rodney Harrison, who each seem on NBC’s "Football Night in America." And even Corridor of Reputation large receiver Randy Moss, whose 23 touchdowns in 2007 are nonetheless an NFL document. Mayo is helping remind us of some other truth: that the Patriots’ luck was once additionally because of probably the most maximum gifted Black gamers to ever play the sport. 

It gained’t be simple for Mayo to apply Belichick.

It gained’t be simple for Mayo to apply Belichick. However he has already claimed his house by means of merely declaring how he in reality feels about main the Patriots and, in a league that’s squeamish about race, how he feels about being a Black guy main the Patriots.

 That’s necessary for the NFL, and it’s necessary for Boston.

“I think we’ve got someone very special who understands how to manage young people today,” Kraft mentioned of Mayo. “The world is different than 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. In all our businesses, we try to create a culture that people want to stay with and be there long-term, and I think that Jerod has the makeup and chemistry, and it’s genuine.”

However in that very same 20-year time period that Kraft mentions, the NFL hasn’t modified sufficient. That’s why we must be rooting for Mayo, a Black trainer who isn’t too shy to mention that there’s nonetheless an issue that must be fastened.

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