Jerod Mayo, the new head coach of the New England Patriots, is trending in the news, and not just because of the history he’s made in his new position in the NFL: Mayo tackled the issue of race head-on during his first press conference.
Mayo is the first Black head coach in Patriots history. On Wednesday, when Patriots owner Robert Kraft was asked what having a Black head coach means, he downplayed it and gave a typical response stating that he doesn’t see color and chose the best person for the job.
“I’m really color blind,” said Kraft. “I want to get the best people I can get. I chose the best head coach for this organization. He happens to be a man of color. But I chose him because I believe he’s best to do the job.”
However, Mayo spoke about race directly. “You better believe being the first Black head coach here in New England means a lot to me,” Mayo said. “I do see color because I believe if you don’t see color, you can’t see racism,” Sports Illustrated reports.
He added: “You have to take ideas from other people: Black, white, green, yellow…it really doesn’t matter. Old, young. One thing you’ll notice about me in our interaction as we continue to go is I don’t like echo chambers. I want people around me that are going to question my ideas or question the way we have done things in the past…”
Mayo, who also played for the Patriots for eight seasons, went on to say that acknowledging race “does matter so we can try to fix the problem that we all know we have.”