After a morning filled with rumors and social media panic, the Boston Bruins fired head coach Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19. Despite winning 71.5% of his games over two-plus seasons with the Bruins, patience wore thin after Montgomery started the 2024-25 season with a disappointing 8-9-3 record.
It goes without saying that the Bruins have struggled out of the gate this season, but it is nonetheless shocking that a team poised to make a run at the Stanley Cup ousted their coach before Thanksgiving. Boston can be an unrelenting sports environment, filled with passionate and critical fans, as well as a media landscape that scrutinizes every move. The city’s expectations for success are always sky-high, and anything less inevitably sparks public frenzy.
Perhaps the most successful member of today’s Boston sports coaching fraternity offered some unique insight into Montgomery’s firing. In a pregame press conference on November 19th, the 2024 NBA Champion coach spoke sincerely about Montgomery, but highlighted the difficulties of coaching professionally and their relative lack of job security.
“You hate to see a coach have to go through that, but we all get hired to get fired,” said Mazzulla. While it’s a grim reality, Mazzulla clearly understands that coaching for the Celtics, or any Boston team, means perform or get out.
While the leashes are often short for Boston coaches, Montgomery’s sudden departure from the Bruins is deserving of further context. Many of the players bore responsibility for their former coach’s firing, feeling that they themselves didn’t play with the utmost effort and lacked team chemistry on the ice.
Bruins captain Brad Marchand addressed the decision to fire Montgomery the next day. “That’s the tough part about this, is that if we had done our job in here, he would still be around, so [we] feel terrible as a group, individually, that we let a really good coach and a really good person down,” said Marchand.
The reality is that successful organizations achieve their goals by operating as a cohesive unit, where players, coaches and the front office are all fixated on a common goal: winning. A team’s leadership must prioritize winning above all else, and everyone involved needs to be held accountable. The front office must assemble a roster that fits the coach’s system, the coach needs to create an environment where players can thrive, and the players must give their all to execute the game plan.
In the case of the Bruins, while Montgomery ultimately paid the price, the players themselves admitted they didn’t live up to expectations. This highlights the notion that when things go wrong in sports, it’s rarely the fault of just one person.
This brings us to the current situation with the New England Patriots, as head coach Jerod Mayo finds himself under increasing scrutiny following a dismal 3-10 season. While it’s true that the team has struggled under his leadership, it’s important to consider the full context of his situation.
The Patriots are clearly in a rebuilding phase, with an inexperienced roster and a first-year head coach. It’s easy to point fingers and call for Mayo’s job, but that misses the bigger picture of this season’s goal. Development in the NFL is a process, and Mayo, even as a coach, deserves the time and opportunity to grow into his role.
For fans and media to demand Mayo’s firing after just one season is incredibly shortsighted. Yes, the Patriots have underperformed, but that doesn’t mean Mayo should be the scapegoat. It would be a mistake for ownership to abandon him so soon, especially considering the broader context of the Patriots’ rebuilding effort.
As we’ve seen with other successful teams, continuity is key, and coaches deserve grace during these difficult phases. Mayo, like any coach in a tough situation, should be given that opportunity to grow and it’s the responsibility of the entire organization to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction.