Patriots editing critical podcast episode raises questions about state of the locker room

The team cut a quote about the locker room “teetering on mutiny” from an in-house production.

Are the New England Patriots falling victim to the Streisand effect? It seems that way after the organization’s content creation team decided to edit a recent episode published on the Patriots Podcast Network.

The latest episode of the team-produced Catch 22 podcast featuring Evan Lazar and Alex Barth, included a statement by the former about the state of the Patriots’ locker room following the team’s 30-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. While seemingly more opinion than reporting, it appears somebody took exception to that quote.

“Right now, they’re teetering on a mutiny in that locker room,” Lazar said in the original version of the show as published Thursday.

“I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but I was in that locker room after the game on Sunday. The defense is mad at the defense, the offense is mad at the offense. You have young receivers who are throwing tantrums on film in Pop Douglas and Ja’Lynn Polk.”

Video of the entire two-hour show was originally uploaded to the Patriots’ YouTube channel and posted on the team’s website, including the part in question:

A short time after getting posted, however, the YouTube link was no longer working while the video of the segment also was made unavailable on patriots.com. The clips being made unavailable quickly began making the rounds on social media, and created more traction than Lazar’s original statements seemingly would have on their own.

To make matters even more curious is the fact that the audio version is still available on the Patriots’ website and podcast players alike. However, the part in question — starting at 57:40 — has been edited: the sentence about the locker room “teetering on a mutiny” has been cut out of the show.

Who the driving force behind that decision was remains unclear.

Lazar himself appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub on Thursday night to discuss the controversy. He claimed that he got “carried away” during the recording of the episode; the statement itself was part of a bigger discussion about when to insert rookie quarterback Drake Maye into the lineup over current starter Jacoby Brissett.

“There’s no mutiny in the Patriots locker room. I got carried away and that was my bad. That’s not what was going on,” he said.

“I just think the biggest thing I worry about — and this is just me personally and my opinion — is how long the rest of the players in the locker room are going to sit there and take their lumps while Drake Maye waits in the wings and waits for his turn. That was my opinion and it came out a little stronger than I intended it to.”

Regardless of intention, the entire saga in combination with New England’s current three-game losing streak has raised questions about the state of the locker room and the Patriots’ message control. Fairly or not, the decision to delete the video and alter the audio played a role in that — more so than the original statements likely would have.

Welcome to the Streisand effect, 2024 Patriots.