Asked if she felt tired after spending over an hour posing for pictures with hundreds of fans, Ilona Maher channels Taylor Swift with her answer.

“I do get tired a lot but, as Taylor Swift said, ‘I get tired a lot but I don’t get tired of it’.”

The ‘it’ the 28-year-old rugby union player from Burlington, Vermont is referring to is the fanfare which follows her every move.

Fresh from making her 20-minute debut for Bristol Bears, the English team she has joined on a three-month contract, Maher had to tackle a queue of photo-seekers more than 250 yards long — taking up three sides of the pitch. Some had travelled across the Atlantic from Washington, D.C. to see a player who now transcends her sport. A 2024 Olympic bronze medallist who last year also featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition and was named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, Maher’s fame continues to snowball.

There weren’t any expectations placed on Maher to spend time with what seemed like every fan who attended her Bristol debut, but she did. “I saw the line of people staying out there and I was like, ‘I’m going to try to take as many photos as I can’,” she told reporters. 

With eight million-plus followers across Instagram and TikTok combined, Maher is the most-followed rugby player in the world. She took followers behind the scenes at the previous Olympics in Japan in 2021, when fans were barred from attending due to ongoing pandemic-related regulations and has a sense of humour that would not go amiss in some Saturday Night Live sketches. Mix that with a back catalogue of empowering, body-confident video messages, and she has a global audience of supporters, many of whom are young women and girls.

Over 9,000 were in attendance for Maher’s debut in Bristol, a city in the west of England, just over 100 miles from London, known, among other things, for being the birthplace of street artist Banksy. And just as when one of the anonymous political activist’s latest works pops up to huge publicity, Maher demands the same level of excitement in whatever she does.

Within 72 hours of her move to England being announced, Sunday’s game against local rivals Gloucester-Hartpury was moved from Shaftesbury Park (the 2,000-capacity venue where the team usually play) to Ashton Gate, the 27,000-seater stadium which is home to Bristol City’s men’s and women’s soccer teams, as well as the Bears’ men’s rugby side.

At that point, there was no guarantee Maher, whose every move is being followed by documentary filmmakers from Hello Sunshine (a production company founded by actor Reese Witherspoon that focuses on telling women’s stories), would even feature in the match after she was named as a replacement on the team sheet 48 hours before kick-off. Yet, the team’s attendance record of 4,101, set in 2022, was smashed. For a standalone game in Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), there has been no bigger crowd.

Rose Kooper-Johnson is a fellow New Englander, from Rhode Island, and has been living in the UK for the past six years. The 29-year-old works at the Bristol-based University of the West of England in student communications and had never watched rugby live before Sunday.

“Hearing she was coming to Bristol was really exciting,” Kooper-Johnson tells The Athletic. “She has been on Dancing with the Stars (Maher finished as runner-up in that show in November) and she’s just so cool and inspiring. If she can be a catalyst for getting more people into women’s sports, then that’s amazing. She has that ability to bring people together.”

Maher takes a selfie with fans after making her debut for Bristol Bears (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Maher’s arrival in England was always going to be impactful.

Having helped the United States’ rugby union sevens women’s team dramatically win Olympic bronze on the game’s final play in Paris last summer, she has timed her move to the sport’s 15-a-side format, where the matches last over four times longer (80 minutes to 14), feature twice as many players on the pitch and games are generally more attritional, to perfection. This is a World Cup year and Maher is eyeing a place on the USA roster. The tournament kicks off with host nation England taking on the Americans on August 22.

Friends Lucy Parkinson, Elvira Berninger, Abby Bevan and Maria East had travelled 130 miles from Bournemouth on the English south coast for Sunday’s have-to-be-there moment. Rugby union team-mates for Ellingham & Ringwood RFC, they usually only attend international women’s fixtures.

“We love all the other players but she (Maher) was the instigator. We were 50/50, like, ‘Do we come just because of the Ilona Maher effect? Yeah, let’s enjoy the hype’,” Bevan tells The Athletic, while East added that the attention on Maher “can only be a good thing for rugby”.

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Chloe and Luke Glover are season-ticket holders for the Bears’ men’s team, so are regulars at Ashton Gate, but the couple had never watched a women’s game before being drawn in by ‘Maher fever’. “She has brought quite a lot of attention to it so we thought we would come and see what it is all about,” Luke says.

Queuing up near food trucks selling churros and barbecued pulled pork are Cathy and her 16-year-old daughter Jasmine, who herself plays rugby union. “She (Maher) has had a big impact on a lot of young girls starting and getting into the sport in general. It has been a big topic, Ilona joining,” Jasmine says. “There are a lot more people looking for teams to join around Bristol, and with her joining a lot more people have even just come here… It was a lot harder to get tickets this time.”

Dings Crusaders under-14s girls’ team did not need to worry about getting tickets, as many of their players were employed to retrieve any loose balls during Sunday’s match. Nellie MacDonald, 12, plays for Dings and feels Maher had made “a massive change to everything already”, and her mum, Sam, agrees, saying, “The amount of people that are here, you can already see it is bigger than before.”

Maher speaks with TNT Sports presenter Jenny Drummond after the match (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

The game was shown live on TNT Sports in the UK, and the league shared a pre-match social media post detailing its kick-off time in various time zones.

Whenever Maher’s face was beamed onto the stadium’s big screen, huge cheers erupted from the thousands gathered in the Dolman Stand and South Stand. The decibels rose when her name was read out before kick-off and, again, when she came on as a replacement during the second half.

Playing on the wing and wearing knee pads and her now-iconic matte red lipstick, Maher burst into a nerve-calming tackle within seconds. The American likes to run with ball in hand, but Gloucester-Hartpury turned up the heat and gave the home side little room to manoeuvre in a match the visitors won 40-17, scoring six tries in total.

Though Maher failed to get a touch of the ball during her time in the game, her introduction lifted the crowd and the team — Bristol scored their third and final try four minutes after she was introduced.

Finally, an hour and 11 minutes after first beginning her lap of fan selfies following the final whistle, Maher sat down for her own post-match press conference.

“I just try to be as equal as possible, because they’re going to do so much for me as maybe I’m doing for them,” Maher said. “They bought a seat and that seat is going to lead to hopefully some more seats. Fans are the revenue we need to bring in to make this league bigger. So it’s almost, I feel, like my duty. They’re doing so much so I want to do more for them.

“Some people came from America. I had some people say they came to this game from Washington, D.C. to watch… I put those (social media) videos out there for them. I want them to feel confident and love themselves and play the sport and understand what the body is capable of. It’s always just really cool that they’re out there and they stay out there.”

Maher, humble yet radiating confidence, takes ownership of the empire she has created, something she has achieved without necessarily being the best player in women’s rugby. 

“It’s cool to be the face of a sport that isn’t thought of as a women’s sport,” she said. “It’s a men’s sport. So to be the face of it and also the impact I’m having is felt across both men’s and women’s (rugby), I’ve had some of the best men’s players in the world be like, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing’ because I think everyone sees value in it. And if one rises, we all rise.

“I’m really proud of what I’ve done and the impact I’ve had on social media, not just in a rugby sense, in a body-positivity sense, the way people are treating themselves. So I’m proud. I think my family is 10-times prouder,” Maher added, with her sister, Olivia, who has moved to England with her, smiling from the back of the room. “And I love what I’m doing.”

Millions of people do.

(Top photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights international detective characters cracking cases in their home cities. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading.

FOXBORO, Mass. — As far back as July, when Jerod Mayo arrived at the practice fields out behind Gillette Stadium for his first training camp as coach of the New England Patriots, many prognosticators saw a team that was at the starting point of a big-time rebuild. That the Patriots finished the season with a dismal 4-13 record shouldn’t be looked at as a big surprise.

Why, then, is Mayo out as coach after just one season? We can cherry-pick this or that coaching decision or non-decision, but it wasn’t just what happened on the field that suggested a not-ready-for-prime-time unsteadiness about Mayo. It was also what happened on the record. Almost from the beginning, Mayo’s various media appearances, from news conferences to his weekly morning-drive interview on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” ranged from contradictory and uncomfortable to one unfortunate instance that had a whiff of old-fashioned buck-passing.

No one utterance from Mayo led to Patriots fans clamoring for a coaching change. He is, after all, a former Patriots linebacker who in his eight seasons in Foxboro was teammates with the likes of Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Randy Moss. Vince Wilfork, Tedy Bruschi, Rob Ninkovich and Devin McCourty. He also played with Mike Vrabel, the man who could soon be wooed to be Mayo’s replacement.

It’s safe to say Pats fans were rooting for Mayo. But as the verbal missteps continued, it became ever more obvious Mayo lacked the proper amount of training to be a head coach in the NFL.

Statement from Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft: https://t.co/2YgHtzzBHK pic.twitter.com/GMXGgd768x

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 5, 2025

Mayo struck the right notes when he was introduced as the replacement for the legendary Bill Belichick, as when he said, “For me, I’m not trying to be Bill,” and, “The more I think about the lessons that I’ve taken from Bill, hard work works.” He did raise some eyebrows when on several occasions he referred to Patriots owner Robert Kraft as “Young Thundercat” and “Thunder.” Mayo later explained he came up with the nicknames because he felt Kraft, who turned 83 in June, has a “young soul.”

No harm, no foul on that one. But later on, as the losses piled up and Mayo’s public statements became more heavily scrutinized, “Young Thundercat” and “Thunder” were re-examined from critics who believed Mayo had landed the coaching gig because he’d become especially chummy with Kraft over the years. Kraft himself has said he was inspired to view Mayo as a future NFL head coach during the time they spent together on a trip to Israel in 2019.

But it was after the introductory news conference, and after Mayo moved into the redecorated coach’s office at Gillette Stadium, that the media missteps began to pile up.

A sampling:

‘Ready to burn some cash’

Appearing on WEEI on Jan 22, a little more than a week after being named coach, Mayo indicated the Patriots wouldn’t be limiting their roster building to the NFL Draft. “We’re bringing in talent, one thousand percent,” he said. “Have a lot of cap space and cash. Ready to burn some cash.”

The Patriots had somewhere north of $60 million in cap space, but the new coach was soon walking back that comment. “You know, I kind of misspoke when I said ‘burn some cash,’ but I was excited when you see those numbers,” Mayo told Karen Guregian of MassLive. “But when you reflect on those numbers … you don’t have to spend all of it in one year.”

One week into free agency, with most of the top names off the board, “the Patriots roster doesn’t look or feel a whole lot different from the one that went 4-13 last season,” The Athletic’s Chad Graff wrote. They did bring in journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett on a one-year deal for about $8 million.

The mixed messaging at quarterback

Almost from the moment the Patriots selected quarterback Drake Maye with the third pick in the draft, Mayo said there would be a “competition” for the job between the rookie (Maye) and the veteran (Brissett). Nothing unusual there, as this is a default quote from coaches after a shiny new draft pick has had his introductory hug with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and been introduced to the media.

But things got complicated when Mayo made repeated references to Maye outperforming Brissett in the preseason, such as when the new coach went on WEEI and said, “This was, or is, a true competition. It wasn’t fluff or anything like that. It’s a true competition. And I would say at this current point, you know, Drake has outplayed Jacoby.”

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Which brings us to an Aug. 28 Mayo media availability that lasted just a few seconds north of a minute.

“We have decided — or I have decided — that Jacoby Brissett will be our starting quarterback this season,” Mayo said.

The competition was fluff after all.

Jerod Mayo is the latest coach to be given just one season in charge before being fired.https://t.co/LIr8PTbGY7 pic.twitter.com/VdDhmC0sa4

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 5, 2025

‘We’re a soft football team across the board’

So said Mayo to the media following the Patriots’ 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 20 in London. It was New England’s sixth straight loss following their season-opening 16-10 victory over Cincinnati.

Not only did Mayo say, “We’re a soft football team across the board,” he took the time to define what makes a team “tough.”

“What makes a tough football team?” Mayo asked. “Being able to run the ball and being able to stop the run and being able to cover kicks, and we did none of that today.”

This was followed by what was now being called Walkback Monday.

“We’re playing soft,” Mayo said during his weekly WEEI hit. “Look, let me just go ahead and correct that. We’re playing soft. Because if you go back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place. We still have the same players. We’ve just got to play that way.”

It worked for Belichick

There was much buzz over Mayo’s clock management late in the fourth quarter of the Patriots’ 25-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Dec. 1 at Gillette Stadium. With the Colts moving the ball toward the end zone, Mayo did not burn any timeouts in order to keep alive his team’s last-ditch drive if needed.

The Colts, trailing 24-17, rallied for a 3-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Richardson to Alec Pierce, followed by Richardson’s run on the conversion try, giving Indy a 25-24 lead. Only 12 seconds remained in the game, which ended with Joey Slye’s failed 68-yard field goal attempt.

“Absolutely, there was a thought,” Mayo said afterward when asked if he considered using timeouts. “We have also won a Super Bowl here doing it the other way. Keeping our timeouts is what I thought was best for our team.”

Mayo was referring to the Patriots’ 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, when Belichick allowed the clock to run down on Seattle’s last drive. It worked out for the Patriots, thanks to Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s head-scratching pass attempt to Ricardo Lockette on second-and-goal from the New England 1 that Malcolm Butler miraculously intercepted to secure New England’s victory.

The next morning on WEEI …

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Mayo said. “When I said it, I was frustrated, first of all, which I should have taken a deep breath. I should not have said that.”

Did anyone get the license number of that bus?

The Patriots’ 30-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 15 was lowlighted by the team’s inability to gain a crucial first down on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 from the Arizona 4-yard line. The Pats gave it a go on runs by Antonio Gibson and Rhamondre Stevenson, both of which went nowhere, leading to this obvious postgame question for Mayo: Why not have Maye, a big, mobile quarterback, go for a sneak?

“You said it, I didn’t,” Mayo replied, which was viewed far and wide as a criticism of offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. Mayo then followed up with, “It’s always my decision, I would say, look, the quarterback obviously has a good pair of legs and does a good job running the ball. We just chose not to do it there.”

The next morning, on Walkback Monday, Mayo tidied up the comment during a conference call with the media.

“I know there’s a lot of chatter about the question last night, ‘You said that,’” Mayo said. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It was more of a defensive response and, ultimately, I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question. Because ultimately all of those decisions are mine. So just wanted to get that out there.”

Mayo then pivoted to his weekly WEEI hit, during which he said he “shouldn’t have done that. Just like I tell the players, I’m still learning how these things work.”

The benching that wasn’t

On Dec. 28, less than an hour before the Patriots would host the Los Angeles Chargers, Mayo went on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s pregame show and responded to Stevenson’s recent fumble issues by telling Scott Zolak, “Gibby is going to start for us today,” referring to Gibson.

The game began, and on New England’s first possession, it was Stevenson toting the ball for a gain of 5 yards.

Why the sudden change of heart?

“Coach’s decision,” Mayo said after the Patriots’ 40-7 loss to the Chargers.

LIVE: Patriots Postgame Press Conferences: https://t.co/kY9REgnEZn

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 5, 2025

The Patriots closed out their season on Sunday with a 23-16 victory against the playoff-bound Buffalo Bills in what may be the most sparsely attended game in the 23-year history of Gillette Stadium.

Mayo was asked 15 questions during his postgame media availability.

The last question: How would you best summarize this year, and did you learn maybe that the team is a little bit further away than you were anticipating?

“I’m not going to get into that,” Mayo said. “Like I said, tomorrow we’ll have a lot of time to talk about those things, but tonight, it’s all about these guys going out there and winning a football game.”

That’s one Mayo won’t need to walk back.

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(Photo: Billie Weiss / Getty Images)