James White Preparing to 'Speak Up', Become Vocal Leader For Patriots
2020 is going to be a new experience for New England Patriots fans and players. It's the first time a season will take place since 2000 without Tom Brady on the team.
In 2019 and the 2020 offseason, New England fans got a feel for change when Rob Gronkowski chose to retire rather than play another season in Bill Belichick's pressure cooker. Moving on from Gronk is a cataclysmic occurrence in its own right, but Gronk doing WWE events on pay-per-view television and then being traded to the NFC South isn't the same as Tom Brady wearing a Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey. That's something fans are going to have to get acclimated to and are likely to struggle with.
But what about the players? How will the absence of Brady affect the Patriots locker room?
James White addressed the heard of elephants in the room on the "Double Coverage" podcast with Devin and Jason McCourty. White said he is doing his part in trying to become a more vocal leader.
“I’m a pretty quiet guy. I don’t talk too much. I don’t say things unless they need to be said,” White said. “So I’m constantly learning to speak my mind sometimes. Because that’s the part where I’m still continuing to try to grow. I feel like I have good things to say. Sometimes I just can’t put the words together. So I’m still trying to work on that.”
In White's six years as a Patriot, he has established himself as one of the best third-down backs in the NFL. But he knows 2020 is something new and different. He sees a hole that needs to be filled off the field and in the meeting rooms, around younger and often new Patriots.
“Usually I don’t say anything, and now I am one of those guys on offense. I am going to have to say something," White said on the podcast. "We don’t have that many guys who have played in our offense besides me, Julian (Edelman), Brandon Bolden, David Andrews, Marcus Cannon. Guys like that. And some of them, they don’t talk that much as well. We’re all going to have to speak up, voice our opinions a little bit more, let the younger guys know how we kind of do things as an offense and make sure everybody is on the same page, especially now having less practice time. I think it is going to be even more important. Who knows if we’re going to have one week, two weeks, a month to get ready for a game. So it is going to be extremely important for all of us to speak up and be on the same page.”
It's not a surprise that White was quiet with an intense leader like Brady and a loud personality like Gronk in the offensive huddle. In 2020, he has a first-year starter under center in Jarrett Stidham, a group of rookie draft picks at tight end and a second-year wide receiver in N'Keal Harry that needs to step up and produce if 2020 is going to be a "typical" New England season under Belichick.
White points out in the interview that there are other veterans that will be looked too for leadership and direction on the offense, but in listing them he identifies how few there actually are.
2020 has the potential to be one of the most challenging seasons, off the field, than organizations have faced in the history of sports. We are living in the midst of a pandemic that has and continues to create a whirlwind of obstacles that players have to adapt to on the fly while race, culture and sports are colliding in ways that we haven't seen since Jackie Robinson and the integration of baseball. There isn't a worse time to be without strong leadership. White sees that and puts words to it in the interview.
The Patriots are judged by their own standard, putting more pressure on themselves than the typical roster. 2020 will be a year that New England, as an entire organization, have an opportunity to make a statement, and James White intends to make his voice heard.
