FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Drake Maye received a nice ovation from the Gillette Stadium crowd when he returned to Saturday’s game after it appeared the New England Patriots had lost their rookie quarterback to another head injury. By the fourth quarter, those fans who chose to stick around until the end of a 40-7 lopsided loss to the Los Angeles Chargers chose to voice their displeasure in a season in which very little has gone right for the former NFL powerhouse. Chants of “Fire Mayo!” reverberated throughout the stadium, which was a quarter full by game’s end. “You hear those things. At the same time, they paid to sit in the seats, and we’ve got to play better. If we play better, we don’t have to hear that stuff,” head coach Jerod Mayo said after the Patriots dropped their sixth straight game. Instead of building off last week’s strong effort at Buffalo, New England took another series of steps backward in the season’s penultimate game. With another game against the Bills on tap next weekend, questions concerning the future of Mayo and several assistant coaches – mostly notably offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington – figure to intensify. “I’m always under pressure and it’s been that way for a very long time, not just when I became the head coach of the Patriots. I’m okay. Look, I always do what’s best for the team,” Mayo said. “I have full confidence in the staff. I have full confidence in the players in (the locker room). I think again, it just comes down to being consistent across the board.” Remember, the Patriots parted ways with six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick following last year’s dismal 4-13 record. The coaching change didn’t produce the desired upward swing, with New England staring at the possibility of producing fewer wins in Mayo’s first season. “I’m just tired of losing. I’m trying to be in the playoffs and have a winning season,” said second-year receiver DeMario Douglas, who connected with Maye for New England’s lone touchdown. The most important asset in the Patriots’ rebuilding efforts, Maye was questionable to return with a head injury after taking a blow to the helmet in the first quarter. The No. 3 overall pick from this spring’s NFL draft scrambled near the sideline on third down of the Patriots’ first possession when he was hit by Chargers cornerback Cam Hart. Maye stayed down on the turf for several seconds before eventually getting up and jogging off the field. He briefly sat on the bench before going to the medical tent for evaluation. He was replaced by backup Jacoby Brissett, but for only one series that ended with a three-and-out. After further evaluation in the locker room, Maye returned to the game for the Patriots’ third series at the 10:15 mark of the second quarter. The 22-year-old was knocked out of the Patriots’ Week 8 win over the New York Jets after he suffered a blow to the back of his head. “Just kind of got my bell rung on the first drive. I feel good, I still feel good, and then I was good to go,” Maye said afterward. To his teammates, it wasn't a shock to see Maye re-enter the game after taking a blow to the head. On his first play back under center, Maye took off for a 9-yard run and drew an unnecessary roughness penalty. “He didn’t have to come back, but he did. That gave everyone a lot of confidence,” Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte said. Maye set a Patriots rookie franchise record for touchdown passes in consecutive games (eight) when he connected with Douglas on a play on which the Chargers called for defensive offsides. He also turned the ball over for the eighth straight game – a fumble on a pitch attempt to Douglas that Los Angeles turned into points to make it 17-0 in the second quarter. “I’ve got to give him a better ball to catch. That falls back on me,” Maye said. It appears the Patriots dodged a bullet with respect to Maye and his health. Now, the focus shifts back to Mayo and what his 2025 status. “I think the biggest thing was you don’t see those guys quitting. I think the score may not tell that today, but I feel like the guys are still wanting to win. We’re still leaving it out there every week, and I think that was kind of my message to the team,” Maye said. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Jim Larrañaga could handle—and repeatedly thrived—in the old college sports system, where athletes could only get paid under-the-table, even if that meant the Feds might subpoena his text messages. But the 75-year-old University of Miami head men’s basketball coach acknowledged this week that he didn’t have what it takes—at least not at this point in his career—to compete for talent in the unfolding open market. This, despite the fact that Larrañaga’s 2022-23 national semifinalist team, led by Kansas State transfer Nijel Pack, became an early archetype for the new epoch of booster-funded NIL. In a surprise announcement Thursday, Larrañaga said he would be immediately stepping down as the Hurricanes’ coach, just two seasons after leading the program to its first Final Four. His current contract, which was extended in May 2023, ran through the end of next academic year. Miami is currently 4-8 this season after winning its first three games. As a private university, Miami is not forced to disclose its employees’ contracts. However, in the school’s 2023 tax filing, which is public, it showed that Larrañaga earned $2.85 million in annual compensation. “I’m exhausted,” Larrañaga told reporters in a press conference. “I’ve tried every which way to keep this going. And I know I’m going to be asked a lot of questions but I want to answer them before I am even asked.” He explained he was “shocked...beyond belief” when, in the wake of the team’s historic Final Four appearance 20 months ago, eight of his players decided to put their names in the transfer portal. Lamented Larrañaga: “The opportunity to make money some place else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself as a coach: What is this all about?” Larrañaga’s chagrin echoes that of several other big-time college basketball coaches—including Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina’s Roy Williams, Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim—who have retired in the four years since the NCAA’s rule changes that now allow college athletes to sell their NIL. Boeheim, incidentally, publicly accused Miami of having “bought” its Final Four team with NIL money. Arguably, Larrañaga should be perfectly well-positioned to explain the forces of capitalism motivating his players to seek more money elsewhere. In 2011, at the age of 61, Larrañaga left his long-time head coaching job at George Mason—which he had led to its only Final Four run five years earlier—to take the reins at UofM. Prior to that, he had spurned other offers, including from Providence, citing his comfort and familiarity with Northern Virginia, where he had coached the Patriots since 1997. The change of scenery quickly proved fruitful. In his second season, the Hurricanes won the ACC regular season title and made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s tournament. But Coral Gables would have its dark days as well. In 2017, Larrañaga received a grand jury subpoena as part of the Department of Justice’s college basketball corruption investigation, and he later acknowledged cooperating with the authorities. Larrañaga was never charged or accused of wrongdoing by the government, but in court filings that identified him as “Coach-3,” he was said to have been mentioned in a wiretapped phone call between two of the defendants as soliciting Adidas’ help in facilitating a $150,000 payment to a recruit Miami hoped to sign. Larrañaga denied the allegation that he or his assistants were involved in any bribes to athletes. “It’s been a strain—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually,” he said at the time, according to the . “But it’s something that’s there. I have to deal with it. And I have the support of my wife and a wonderful family. I have the support of the university and the support of my staff and players. So we just have to keep moving forward.” He persevered, but the team slogged through three losing seasons following his subpoena. Then, in 2021-22, they turned it around, posting a 26-11 record and earning a berth to the Elite Eight. A month later, the Hurricanes landed Pack thanks to a two-year $800,000 NIL deal with LifeWallet, the company founded by UM booster John Ruiz. With Pack leading the way, Miami went 29-8 the following year on its way to the Final Four. Including Pack, now playing a fifth-year graduate student, Miami’s current roster sports eight Division I transfers. Sign up for . For the latest news, follow us on , , and .WASHINGTON − The on Friday agreed to review whether California can set its own vehicle emissions rules to transition away from gasoline powered cars. What California does shapes national emissions standards because of its large customer base for automakers. But “the Golden State is not the golden child,” Ohio and 16 other states with GOP attorneys general c And the fuel producers and sellers that are California’s rules argue that the state is unlawfully acting as a “quasi-federal regulator on global climate change.” The issue is whether the Environmental Protection Agency can allow California to impose emissions standards on new vehicles that are tougher than the federal government’s. The Clean Air Act permits that under certain conditions. That provision was intended in part to address the fact the climate and topography of the nation’s most populous state makes pollution from tailpipe emissions harder to control. But the GOP states argue Congress didn’t have the authority to carve out special permission for California because “no state is more equal than the others.” “And California’s vast economy means that whatever regulations California imposes will likely set the market for the rest of the nation,” they told the Supreme Court. Separately, fuel producers argue that California’s efforts to phase out gasoline-powered cars don't meet the law’s conditions for special treatment because climate change is not specific to California. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the challenge, saying the oil industry groups hadn’t shown they’d be sufficiently harmed by California’s standards. While the fuel producers say it’s self evident fuel consumption will go down, the appeals court found automakers were already transitioning toward electric vehicles by the time the challenge was filed. Complicating the issue is the fact that the EPA took different positions on California’s rules during the Trump and Biden administrations. The Trump administration , saying it violated federal law. The Biden administration , which is in effect through model year 2025. California’s well beyond that is pending with the EPA. The state wants to end the sale of new vehicles that run solely on gasoline by 2035. And the EPA announced its own rules this year to cut tailpipe emissions in half by 2032. Those rules, which President-elect Donald Trump has promised to repeal, are also being challenged by oil industry groups and Republican states. The Supreme Court is expected to decide the case, Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, by summer.