Are Patriots Soft? Tom Brady Weighs In On Jerod Mayo’s Remark

Tom Brady seems to believe Jerod Mayo wasn’t simply working with an eye test when he called out the Patriots last Sunday.

Mayo described New England as a “soft football team” after its demoralizing two-score loss to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars in London. The first-year head coach later clarified that the Patriots currently are “playing soft,” which Brady appeared to agree with when he spoke about the situation with Bill Belichick on the latest “Let’s Go!” podcast.

“…We think that that’s almost like a trait. And I think the thing I always learned from Coach Belichick was there’s actually statistics that support that,” Brady said, as transcribed by Athlon Sports.

“Toughness was about stopping the run and running the football and covering kicks. And if we did all three of those things on the teams that I was a part of, we considered ourselves a physical football team.”

Longtime Patriots leader Jonathan Jones highlighted those exact three areas when he addressed Mayo’s call-out Monday afternoon. Jones, who sent a message to New England players in the locker room after the team’s sixth straight loss, knows the Patriots’ effort level isn’t where it needs to be.

New England will look to put forth an all-around better performance Sunday when it hosts the rival New York Jets.