On the Amazon Prime Video pregame show for Thursday Night Football, Patriots owner Robert Kraft raised some eyebrows when he told reporter Taylor Rooks that he picked Jerod Mayo to be the next head coach of his football team in 2019.
“Look, Jerod learned a lot from Bill [Belichick], you know the technical background,” said Kraft. “But they’re each special individuals. I’ve gotten to know Jerod over the last 15 years. And you know, I picked him five years ago to be our next head coach.”
“He’s very special, and it’s great he had the ability to train under Bill.”
So if you believe Kraft, that means the Patriots owner chose Mayo to be the heir apparent to Belichick during Mayo’s first season back with the organization after four years of working as vice president of business development at Optum - a company in the healthcare technology space.
Mayo’s initial role with the Patriots coaching staff in 2019 was as inside linebackers coach. He would go on to eventually help call the defense for the Patriots in conjunction with Belichick’s son Stephen, the team’s outside linebackers coach.
If that partnership sounds murky, it’s because it was.
And it sounds like Mayo’s recollection of Kraft’s decision from five years ago is also murky - again, if you believe what Kraft told Rooks on Thursday night.
Courtney Cox of The Greg Hill Show asked Mayo about Kraft’s comments on Amazon.
“Kraft was on the field before the game, and said that he had picked you as the next head coach five years ago,” said Cox. “Was that news to you, or were you on the same page five years ago?”
“I wasn’t on the same page five years ago,” answered Mayo. “So he kept that one close to the vest.”
So while Mayo insists he didn’t know Kraft’s plans back in 2019, he did not outright proclaim his comments to be false.
Add more fuel to the conspiracy theory fire surrounding Belichick’s departure from New England, folks.