Patriots QB Mac Jones New 'If' Coach: Rudyard Kipling?

What does Patriots QB Mac Jones mean by referring to the famous Rudyard Kipling poem?

"If - .''

They are professional athletes, but many of them spend so much time and energy and craftsmanship on their social media posts that they are also, almost "professional IG'ers.''

Or "professional Tweeters.''

Or something.

So what is New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones trying to say with his Instagram post?

Mac Jones rarely posts on Instagram, but just shared a lookback on the season that drew a bunch of comments from his Patriots teammates: https://t.co/HAG99NsEu6 pic.twitter.com/aCVwesnRy7

— Dakota Randall (@DakRandall) January 19, 2023

“IF–” is the famous poem published in 1910 by Rudyard Kipling, the speaker teaching life lessons to his son.

And of course any team - but maybe especially the "dysfunctional'' 2022 Pats - could use some life lessons.

The poem  ...

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

So there you go. It means a lot about coach Bill Belichick and his staff. It means something about winning and losing in the NFL. Or it means Mac took a Poetry Appreciation class at Alabama.

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