New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo recently toed the line of taking a shot at his former boss.
Mayo, while appearing on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” this past Monday, bit his tongue when asked if inheriting one of the NFL’s weakest roster from former head coach and top decision-maker Bill Belichick had translated into lousy results.
“You tell me,” Mayo said. “I’m not going there.”
Michael Lombardi, who worked in Foxboro, Mass. under Belichick, didn’t like that and shared just how displeased he was with the comment when joining George Balekji and Travis Thomas on NESN’s “Foxboro Rush” podcast on Friday.
“(Patriots owner Robert Kraft) does the same thing, too,” Lombardi said. “He was saying he couldn’t trust Bill anymore, but he has six Super Bowl trophies in his case. I don’t know where else you get trust from. It’s all about trying to discredit the former coach who won six Super Bowls and build a new program…Bill’s not in the building anymore, so when you sign players back you can’t blame him for what’s going on. I think that’s talking out of both sides of your mouth…
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“It’s really a cop-out. When are they going to stop blaming Bill for everything that goes wrong? I know when, when they start to win, because it will be all on them.”
Lombardi compared the situation to that of the Washington Commanders, who fired long-time head coach Ron Rivera this past offseason and have enjoyed a 4-2 start under new head coach Dan Quinn and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels.
“Washington isn’t saying it’s Ron Rivera’s fault. Washington just got better,” Lombardi said. “Washington had one pick higher than the Patriots, so they were a worse team than New England last year, but they’ve gotten better.”
You can listen to the latest episode of “Foxboro Rush” on YouTube and Spotify.
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