FOXBOROUGH – Bill Belichick clearly has a bone to select with Jerod Mayo and the Patriots shall be fired in January.

And after Mayo opened himself as much as criticism by initially calling the Patriots a “soft” team on Sunday, Belichick took multiple opportunities to denounce New England's recent head coach and defend his former players.

“These guys kind of hurt me because to call them soft – they're not soft, they were the best team in the league against the run last year,” Belichick said on ESPN's “The Pat McAfee” on Monday his former players Show.” “Those guys went on the market and did it regardless that we couldn't rating many points offensively, so I don't know – I feel bad for the defensive players on this game because that's a tricky group.”

Belichick continued his volley against Mayo on Monday night during his appearance on “Let's Go!” Podcast with Jim Gray and Tom Brady.

“I think when you publicly criticize your team like that, it doesn’t always go over well,” Belichick said. “Every coach has their own style and maybe that can be effective at times, but ultimately I always felt that if a team played poorly it was also my responsibility.

“We may have played badly, but we had a bad coach which led to bad play. That's why I think it's always best to take a look at yourself and do what you can do to help the team. And then, you know, when you give constructive criticism as a coach, that’s your job.”

On Wednesday morning, Mayo was asked if he was disappointed that his former coach had repeatedly criticized him.

Perhaps in his most fitting tribute to Belichick, Mayo chose to look forward rather than dwell on the verbal comments leveled against him.

“Like I said, my main focus is the people in this building,” Mayo noted. “Not just the players, but also the coaches and the rest of the staff. As soon as we turn the thing over, everything is fine. It comes down to wins and losses. That’s what matters and that’s what you’ll ultimately be judged on.”

Throughout most of Wednesday's press conference, Mayo did a good job of Belichick's tried-and-tested media maneuvers – shifting discussion of his comments and last week's loss to the Jaguars to the focus of New England's upcoming home game against the Jets.

“The message to these guys – it’s all about the Jets and we’re moving on,” Mayo said. “Obviously there’s a lot of noise out there. And I said: We are what our balance sheet is. We have to get better. That is ultimately my responsibility. And look, I take all the blame. It's okay. It’s moving to the jets.”

Despite Belichick's pointed comments, veteran defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said he didn't get much from Belichick and Mayo's recent quotes about the team.”

“I don’t think Bill means any harm,” Godchaux said via Alex Barth from 98.5 The Sports Hub. “I think people misunderstood it…just like I think people misunderstood Jerod [calling the team soft].”

While a number of the aforementioned “noise” Mayo described following his comments immediately after Sunday's game was self-inflicted, two Patriots wide receivers have also made their coach's job tougher due to social media.

Mayo faced questions Monday about rookie Ja'Lynn Polk's cryptic Instagram post after a disappointing game in London and KJ Osborn's posting of an exchange between him and sports agent Brandon Abdala about his role on the team's depth chart.

Despite those distractions, Mayo emphasized Wednesday that the Patriots are usually not changing their stance on social media use and won’t implore players to stop using it as an outlet in the long run.

“To me, it is what it is,” Mayo said. “For example, when you win games there will be noise. I mean, we've been doing this for a long time. It's very cyclical. Sometimes stories are already written, they just involve a different cast of characters.

“What I would say is that we know that the only people who can go out and win football games are not the media, not your mother calling you and telling you X, Y and Z, or someone in the supermarket. No, it’s about the people who are in this building.”

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Conor Ryan is a staff author covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a job he has held since 2023.

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TALLADEGA, Ala. – As Denny Hamlin processed the response to his racing team's filing of an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR this week, his fiancée Jordan Fish sent him a clip from the movie “Moneyball.”

“The first guy that goes through the wall — he always gets bloody,” the actor who plays Boston Red Sox owner John Henry says within the film. “This not only threatens business operations, but in their eyes also the game. What it really threatens is their livelihoods, it threatens their jobs. It threatens the way they do things.”

Hamlin found that clip relatable after 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan, joined with Front Row Motorsports on Wednesday to accuse NASCAR of being a monopoly in federal court. The response has been positive, Hamlin said, from individuals who wish to see the establishment challenged – and it has lifted a weight off his mind as he tries to claw his way into the third round of the playoffs.

“It's not like we woke up one day and said, 'This is going to happen,'” said Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing before qualifying eighth for Sunday's NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway qualified. “This has been on the agenda for some time. It's given me relief to focus more on driving the No. 11 car and everything I have to do there, since (the lawsuit) is over and there are now other people commenting on it from a legal perspective. “

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While it may have been a long time coming for Hamlin, others in the NASCAR pits were still processing the new news and what the result could mean for the future of NASCAR and its racing teams.

“It’s obviously the biggest story in the sport,” said driver/owner Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing. “It's another installment of the soap opera 'As The World Turns: NASCAR.' We’ll all find out (how it ends) together.”

Keselowski said he “wouldn’t expect” his team to hitch the lawsuit, a sentiment shared by six-time champion owner Richard Childress. RFK and Richard Childress Racing each signed the 2025 charter agreement last month, which incorporates a provision prohibiting teams from taking antitrust motion against NASCAR. (23XI and Front Row refused to sign it.)

However, Childress said the teams were being pressured into signing the brand new agreements, an allegation made within the lawsuit.

“We had no choice in signing them,” Childress said. “It just said, 'Sign it or you'll lose your certificates.' I couldn't take that risk, period. And I know a lot of the owners I spoke to felt the same way.”

So does he think NASCAR is a monopoly?

“I'll put it this way: If you want to race, you race in their park, if you want to race NASCAR,” Childress said.

NASCAR again declined to comment Saturday and has not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit. According to a court filing, 23XI and Front Row will seek a preliminary injunction next week, after which NASCAR must respond in its own motion within two weeks.

Meanwhile, drivers said they were following the story closely in the media, with several confirming that it was the most significant story to emerge in NASCAR in years.

“This is huge for our sport no matter what,” said Team Penske driver Joey Logano. “It’s obviously big because we’ve never seen it before.”

But many said they weren't sure what the outcome would be and therefore didn't have a clear opinion on it.

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“I would like to see our sport become more successful,” said William Byron, driver for Hendrick Motorsports. “When I look at other professional sports and see where we could be, I’m excited about that. Hopefully that comes to fruition.”

23XI co-owner Curtis Polk caught the attention of some drivers this week after he said their salaries are a fraction of what other athletes make when compared to the total revenues of various sports leagues. Driver salaries, which are not publicly disclosed, have fallen dramatically since their peak in the mid-2000s, NASCAR officials have repeatedly said.

“We are probably one of the few sports, if not the only sport, where athlete salaries have declined over the last few decades,” Hendrick driver Kyle Larson said. “Of course we would rather see an upward trend than the reverse trend. But teams will likely need to make a lot more money to pay the people who work for their organizations.”

23XI drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick expressed their full support for their team owners' actions, as did Front Row driver Michael McDowell.

“I am an advocate for change and I stand for change,” said Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series. “It’s a crazy time to be in NASCAR, but I’m behind my team 100 percent and we’ll see where it takes us.”

McDowell, who won the pole position for Sunday's race, said he was confident there was no leaner, more efficient organization than Front Row – and yet team owner Bob Jenkins still had to pour “tens of millions and tens of millions” of dollars into the team to be even remotely competitive.

“If he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem,” McDowell said.

Hamlin was asked if he felt NASCAR valued 23XI's financial commitment to the sport. He pursed his lips and paused for ten seconds before finally answering.

“Probably not,” he said.

Go deeper

Team owner on Michael Jordan's legal battle with NASCAR: It's getting 'wild'

LOS ANGELES – It looks like few shows have been as successful this 12 months as “Nobody Wants This.” The romantic comedy received near-unanimous praise from critics – one even called it “as funny as Harry and Sally” – and secured the highest spot on Netflix's top 10 TV series list just hours after its debut. (It's also already spawned a whole bunch of thirsty Adam Brody memes on social media.)

But amid the love for Erin Foster's recent series, some within the Jewish community have raised questions on whether or not the show perpetuates problematic stereotypes about Jewish women.

“Nobody Wants This” centers on agnostic podcast host Joanne (Kristen Bell), who falls in love with Noah (Brody), a non secular leader often called the “hot rabbi” in his temple the couple As Joanne finds her way in her recent relationship, she is initially met with contempt from the rabbi's Jewish family. Noah's Russian immigrant parents – especially his mother – are hesitant to embrace her, even after she tells them she is able to convert to Judaism. And Noah's sister-in-law stays so loyal to his Jewish ex that she even yells “whore” at Joanne outside a bar. (By the best way, this ex was so eager to marry Noah that she preemptively found an engagement ring he had hidden and began wearing it before he proposed.)

“I can't imagine a man watching this show and saying, 'I really want to date a Jewish girl!'” wrote Jessica Radloff in Glamour. “We seem like controlling, marriage-hungry women who plan dinner parties and want to alienate anyone who doesn’t share those dreams.”

The series was inspired by Foster real romance: She fell in love with a Jew who desperately desired to marry someone who was also Jewish and converted. It's been nearly five years since Foster accomplished that process — she took a 10-week course on the American Jewish University in West L.A. — but as she walked into the writers' room, she said she intentionally surrounded herself with colleagues who were born as Jews. “I’m Jewish, but I didn’t grow up Jewish. This is something different,” said Foster, 42.

During the press tour leading as much as the premiere of “Nobody Wants This,” questions were raised concerning the show’s portrayal of Judaism. In an interview with The Times – where she was later joined by her husband Simon Tikhman – Foster spoke about her approach to portraying the culture on screen.

Q: What do you concentrate on critics calling a few of the Jewish characters on the show stereotypical?

A: I feel we’d like positive Jewish stories now. I feel it's interesting when you have got a rabbi on the helm, people concentrate on, “Oh, that's a stereotype of the Jewish people.” A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That's the alternative of how people see a Jewish rabbi, right? If I made the Jewish parents appear like two granola hippies on a farm, someone would write: “I've never met a Jewish person like that.” You obviously don't know how one can write about Jewish people, you don't know what you do, and that doesn’t represent us well.”

Q: This series is inspired by your relationship along with your husband. Was it difficult so that you can be accepted into his Jewish family?

A: In real life, Simon's parents and I even have a terrific relationship. We at all times did that, and truthfully they never had an issue with me since it was a terrific honor for them to convert to Judaism. Bringing someone to the Jewish faith was the last word daughter-in-law move; It brought us together in such a terrific way.

But in a television show there needs to be conflict. It is very important that Noah's parents are immigrants within the series since the culture of immigrants may be very different from the culture of American Jews. Simon's parents fled the Soviet Union because they were Jews. That's a really different experience than someone who grew up in LA and wasn't exposed to the sort of anti-Semitism that he was exposed to. It means something different. It's a rather more sensitive topic and it's much closer to home.

That's why I don't have the sensation that the parents have so many stereotypical ideas. Immigrant culture will be very insular and scared of outsiders, and there’s a very good reason for this. I wanted to deal with this since it represents an extra layer of cultural differences between these two people.

Q: Was it necessary to you that the actor playing Noah actually be Jewish?

A: I assumed it was really necessary. We literally auditioned every Jewish actor on the face of the earth.

I feel it's okay to speak openly about it and make it clear that you simply're on the lookout for a Jewish actor to play a rabbi. And the reality is, nobody felt right – not even close [but Brody].

And I feel it's ridiculous to think that an actor needs to be all the pieces he plays. I imagine that a gay man can play a straight man. A straight person can play a gay person. But I felt that somebody who isn't Jewish would feel improper playing a rabbi within the lead role in a show that shines a positive light on Jewish culture. That didn't suit me.

Q: What do you concentrate on “Nobody Wants This” coming out amid a heightened climate of anti-Semitism?

A: We're definitely not the show that deals with the political climate of what's happening on this planet immediately. That's not why people come to our show to observe it, and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to deal with that topic because I wasn't raised Jewish. I even have my very own opinion about it as an individual, but it surely shouldn't be a part of the show. I don't think it's okay to talk for therefore many individuals. What I actually desired to do was to shine a positive light on Jewish culture from my perspective – my positive experiences that I dropped at Jewish culture, with a little bit little bit of fun, [and] teachable moments about things in Judaism that I like without being heavy-handed. Because I don't think people want that on the show.

Q: How has your relationship with Judaism modified since your conversion?

A: I remember this panicked feeling as I left the mikvah [a ritual bath that occurs at the end of the conversion process]. I assumed, “I don't feel Jewish yet.” I used to be dunked under a hot tub and thought something magical was going to occur, like “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!”

But I didn't feel anything and I used to be very scared. “Am I really Jewish? I don’t feel any different.”

Now, five years later, I understand that you simply don't feel Jewish until you've been Jewish. When I see anti-Semitism, I feel I'm Jewish. I feel more Jewish since converting because I've had quite a bit more experiences than simply learning about it in a classroom and learning the date and meaning of a vacation. In 2024, given what is occurring on this planet, I feel Jewish.