Patriots have given fans some reason for optimism
Say what you will about Mac Jones, but one thing we can’t doubt is his love for and dedication to football. We’d heard the stories from Jim Nagy of the Senior Bowl finding Mac Jones studying in the library past midnight…Alabama coach Nick Saban hailing Jones’ relentless intensity…current New England Patriots teammates like Josh Uche praising Mac’s work ethic and saying that “he’s a dog”...seen Mac running voluntary throwing sessions over and over in the spring with receivers and backs. No denying he loves playing football.
But this story from a college teammate with the Crimson Tide takes Mac’s football guy dedication to a whole new level.
Appearing on The Side Hustle Podcast, former Alabama wide receiver – and college teammate of Mac Jones – Mac Hereford describes an unscheduled throwing session he had with Jones back in 2019. The team was coming home from a banquet around the time of the SEC Championship when Jones approached Hereford about getting in a late night throwing session. While wearing their dress clothes.
Hereford agreed, so the two went to the team’s practice spot, The Mal M. Moore Training Facility, and that’s when things got interesting, and surprisingly intense.
“I’m in a suit catching footballs from Mac Jones, like…what is going on right now?” asks the former walk-on receiver, who attended Alabama from 2016-2019. Hereford said he didn’t want to get too intense, but Jones kept throwing and asked him to start jogging and then running routes, at which point Hereford obliged, and then things got wild.
Hereford didn’t want to ruin his good suit, his “church clothes” as he described, so he took off his jacket, then his collared shirt, and then, to not rip them, his pants. And it was almost midnight.
“I get down to compression shorts and nothing else, running routes in Mal M. Moore Facility, catching balls from Mac Jones,” he said. “I loved it. I’m pretty sure someone walked in and wondered what the hell is going on here?”
Just being football guys.
The great ones are always the most dedicated. Extra hours, extra shots, extra throws, extra practice. And it may be that kind of dedication and extra effort Jones and the Patriots need to get the passing game back in shape and raise the offense to the level they need to compete in the AFC East. No official word on the policy of after-dark practices on the field at Gillette Stadium or the fields surrounding it.
But don’t be surprised to see Jones and some rookie receivers like Kayshon Boutte or DeMario Douglas out there one night this year after a team function. Just maybe not in compression shorts.
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