Attendance for Patriots minicamp is mandatory for players, but on Tuesday, all that required was giving back to the community.
The Patriots canceled Day 2 of minicamp and split their roster and coaching staff into four groups. One group volunteered at Perkins Community Center/Lee School in Dorchester, a second group volunteered at Lila Fredericks Middle School in Boston, a third group volunteered at Elevated Thought, an art and social justice organization that develops spaces for youth and communities to engage with to understand creativity’s liberating power in Lawrence, and a final group volunteered at Meryl’s Safe Haven, an emergency assistance shelter committed to helping young people transition on a path to self-sustainability, in Worcester.
Head coach Jerod Mayo, rookie quarterback Drake Maye, inside linebackers coach Dont’a Hightower and center David Andrews received the biggest ovation when they introduced themselves to students and staff at Perkins Community Center in Dorchester. The Lee School cheerleaders performed for the Patriots representatives, which also included rookie wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk, veteran wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and safety Kyle Dugger before everyone moved over the gymnasium for two competitive games of dodgeball, which had players and students working together.
Ja'Lynn Polk snipes Drake Maye in a heated game of dodgeball. pic.twitter.com/XRJapEZTP9
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) June 11, 2024
“It was mayhem there,” Andrews said.
Then the staff at the community center opened up the gym to pit the players and students against each other.
“It’s important for us to get out in the community,” Mayo said as players and students played basketball nearby. “Coming out here to the Lee School has been fantastic. We broke the team up in four different groups and went to four different foundations. It’s important for us to really use our platform. Right now, we felt it was important, it comes top down from ownership, that we take a veteran mandatory day to come out to the community. It’s been fantastic.”
Mayo was most impressed by Maye and tight end Hunter Henry’s dodgeball skills, saying they had the mix of athleticism and throwing ability. Cornerback Isaiah Bolden was also a standout.
Maye and Andrews decided to switch teams to help out the Lee School students.
“It’s just more opportunity to play,” Andrews said. “I don’t know. I might tell Jerod I might not be able to practice tomorrow. My elbow’s a little sore.
“It’s just awesome to see their faces, the joy because you know if you ever had an event like this, you remember it.”
Some of the Patriots players were looking a little winded after the dodgeball game and joked that it was a better workout than minicamp. Mayo said it was a chance to sneak in some conditioning work.
“You gotta keep working. Look, I’m sure all of those guys are counting their steps anyway,” he said.
The Patriots are still scheduled to practice on Wednesday. It will be a busy day for Mayo, who’s also scheduled to appear at the Tom Brady Patriots Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which takes place in Gillette Stadium at 7 p.m.
After minicamp wraps on Wednesday, players will be off until training camp begins in late July. Mayo was asked to assess where his team is at after weeks of the offseason workout program.
“It’s hard for me as a first-year head coach to know if we’re ahead or behind. I feel good,” Mayo said. “I feel like we’ve made progress and we’re going in the right direction. We’ll see if that carries over to training camp.”
Another hope is that events like Tuesday will help the team bond. ESPN reported that the team also arranged a visit to Topgolf recently.
“Things like that is great. You build camaraderie within the team,” Mayo said. “But I would say coming out to events like this and to be in a place where people are less fortunate and to give back really brings the team closer together as you can see out there with our dodgeball team.”
Andrews also enjoyed the time to get to know some of his newer teammates better. His group included rookie offensive linemen Caedan Wallace and Layden Robinson, rookie tight end Jaheim Bell, guard Sidy Sow, veteran tight end Austin Hooper, safety Marte Mapu and linebacker Sione Takitaki.
“It’s great, getting guys who aren’t usually with each other sometimes, especially rookies, things like that. Usually the O-line hangs out with the O-line, things like that,” Andrews said. “Any time you can get everyone together to talk, the bus rides are always great because it’s just guys talking, offseason things, giving advice to rookies, things we did, mistakes we made, things we wish we had done differently. Stuff like that is just invaluable. It makes these events great.”
After dodgeball, the team split up to play basketball, football and badminton with students. The two-hour event concluded with players handing out ice cream to students before busing back to Gillette Stadium.
Drake Maye has some hops pic.twitter.com/IdYwatTNyY
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) June 11, 2024
