Here are several questions that the locals somehow forgot to ask Jerod Mayo since he became the 15th Head Coach of the New England Patriots in January:
When was your first conversation with Robert about becoming the head coach?
When was your first conversation with Robert about becoming the head coach for 2024?
Was there language in the contract you signed prior to the 2023 season that spelled out this plan to elevate you to head coach?
Were there financial implications tied to this language if that elevation did not occur? And by what date?
Was Bill aware of this language in your contract? Did you discuss it with him?
Did you discuss this with Robert at any point between the start of the 2023 season and the final game against the Jets? If so, did these conversations occur during regular business hours at the team facility?
Did Bill request that you leave the business world and start a career in coaching?
Do you believe that Bill would have liked to continue coaching here beyond 2023?
Do you believe conversations that go over the head of your direct superior to his boss about your boss’ future are conducive to a productive work environment?
..how it’s going.
A joint offering from The15 and The Collaborative Podcast Coalition.
Welcome back to a new recurring feature here at The15net dot com! You have questions about local sports and culture, we will try and answer them. Let’s go!
Yep. Accept it as fact, tulips.
Q: Having watched the FIFA Women’s World Cup, it was dismaying to see how many matches were decided by penalty kicks. I think those, and penalty shots in hockey are the worst way to decide a match. Why don’t they just keep playing endless overtimes like they used to? Why did they change it?! Is it because other sports didn’t like being reminded that hockey players are the absolute toughest players in pro sports? Michael Woby, Worcester, MA
A: Yes. It is an open secret that professional hockey players are tougher than any other athletes, as well as many nations’ top Special Forces troops. ‘Memba when Gregory Campbell skated an entire shift on a broken leg? Or when Patrice Bergeron played with broken ribs, torn cartilage, a separated shoulder, and a slowly collapsing lung?
Johnny Vander Meer: Back-to-back no hitters. Nolan Ryan: Seven career No-no’s. Jason Varitek: Catcher for four Red Sox no-hitters.
Q: I’ll argue that combined no hitters are just as impressive if not more so than one-man no hitters. The fact a team can’t muster one hit against multiple different pitchers after the one starting pitcher that mowed them down is taken out is terrible.Seve, Points Unknown
A: That wasn’t phrased as a question. But many people disagree and feel it’s much harder to get a hit in 3 tries off a guy who is fatiguing as the game goes on than it is to get one off of a fresh reliever throwing 101 with a devastating slider.
Friedkin. Pacino. Not close.
Q: I was saddened to hear about the death of film director William Freidkin, who has a Boston connection thanks to filming The Brinks Job on location in and around the capitol city of Massachusetts. My question is, knowing that the studio tied his hands with regard to having Al Pacino star in Cruising, did Friedkin give a flying FUCK through a rolling DONUT about ANYTHING Al Pacino says or thinks?
A: He reportedly did not give a flying fuck through a rolling donut about anything Al Pacino says or thinks.
Q: Should I use words I’m not sure the meaning of, or would that be salubrious? Sven Kowalewski, No. Reading
A: You should not use words you do not understand. In this case, salubrious. Which means ‘healthy, health-giving, or pleasant.’
This truck is stuck.
Q: Why can’t I take a moving truck onto Storrow Drive? Paul, White Plains, NY
A: Because your moving truck is somewhere between six and sixteen inches overheight and will get at best, tuna-canned and at worst, stuck under one of the bridges that have only 10 feet or 10 feet, six inches of clearance. So please don’t.
Welcome to a new recurring feature here at The15net dot com! You have questions about local sports and culture, we will try and answer them. Let’s go!
Q: What the hell is the point of winning the NBA’s in-season tournament anyway? – Tony Powers, Brookline
A: It means you qualify for UEFA Europa League.
Q: No, really.
A: That wasn’t phrased as a question. But the answer is, it grants a permission structure for the fans of every other NBA franchise to make unmerciful fun of the team that wins the tournament but doesn’t also win the championship. And rightly so.
Q: In much the same way as the Mass Ave. Bridge is measured out in ‘Smoots’, I think the Ted Williams Tunnel should be measured using the length of the famous Red Seat home run hit by The Splendid Splinter. Who should I bring this up with? The Mass DOT? My state legislator? – Marie Mimieux – Shirley
A: What a great idea. As it stands, the Ted Williams Tunnel, or ‘TWT’ as no one calls it, is 1.6 miles in length. Teddy Ballgame’s epic June 1946 home run off Detroit’s Fred Hutchinson was measured at 502 feet. A mile is 5,280 feet, multiply by 1.6 gets us to 8228 feet, divide that by 502 feet and we determine that the tunnel is 16.83 Red Seat home run lengths long. You should definitely try and get this to happen either as you suggested by contacting your representative, or one of the local knights of the keyboard. Good luck and let us know if we can help get this done.
Without DeAndre Hopkins, the #Patriots rankings in team cash spending and cap space over the next 4 years are:
Q: Could there be a more useless number than cap space three years out? – Pat Staley, Frostbite Falls, MN
A: Yes; Batting Average.
Q: How old was Upton Bell that last time the two other AFC East teams that have won a Super Bowl won one? – Richard Avis, Holden
Upton was 37 when the Dolphins won SBVIIII, the same age as Scarlett Johansson today, and was a spry 32 when the Jets shocked his Colts team in Super Bowl III, so approximately the same age as Steph Curry or Margot Robbie are right now. We do not know if Upton will live long enough to see the Buffalo Bills win a Soupey.
Uppy was once the same age as these young, vibrant people, Kevin.
Q: I remember the outfield wall distances at Fenway Park being painted on in both feet and meters. When did the metric distances disappear? – Michael Skellig, Winthrop
A: The metric measurements were added for the 1976 season, during our nation’s brief dalliance with fully converting to the metric system after the passage and signing of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975. Full metrication never occurred, and the metric distances were removed during the 2002 season.
379 feet, 115 meters.
Q: When is the best time to harvest my tomato plants? – Ellis Wheat, Norfolk
A: Pick your tomatoes in the morning, and when they are fully red in color. Note; non-red tomatoes such as the Berkeley Pink Tie-Dye, Black Beauty, Cherokee Purple, Great White, Green Zebra, and Yellow Pear have different harvest dates, varying between 65-80 days after transplant.
The 15 