Trickle Down Dysfunction

/ New York Jets / By

Earlier in the year I tweeted about the resiliency of Jets fans:

Some of you younger fans may not get this, but I assure you if things do not change you eventually will. For multiple decades us fans have watched as our team has consistently had bad GMs that draft horrendously and then swing big in free agency to compensate. That strategy never works but from what we have seen it’s not from a lack of trying. We have seen bad coaches use players incorrectly and not to their strengths, pigeonholing them into roles ill suited for them. Bad play calling, bad scheming, poor adjusting, the list just goes on. Us Jets fans are stuck in a case of perpetual deja vu.

But like with all problem solving, you have to trace it back to the source otherwise you are just perpetuating it. What do all of these GMs, coaches, personnel, & problems have in common: the owner who hires all of them.

A while back I cited an article from the Atlantic back from 2013 talking about how bad an owner Leon Hess was. How he didn’t understand football or have the capacity to hire the right people that understand football. The author said the sentiment had been hope when Woody Johnson purchased the team that things would get better. Obviously they did not, and he titled the article “Why the New York Jets Have Been So Bad For So Long.” Here is the link if you are interested in reading it yourself: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/why-the-new-york-jets-have-been-so-bad-for-so-long/281917/

Flash forward to today, about 20 years later. Over that 20 years, the Jets record is 148 wins to 172 losses, and they have only made the playoffs six times, and not since a decade ago in 2010. The Jets have only won 11 games or more ONCE in that 20 year period. Not only has it not gotten better, many would argue it’s been worse.

Dysfunction trickles down. We’ve seen it with other teams as well. Bad owners who don’t understand football making bad hires across the board, dooming their franchises to years of mediocrity or worse. Right now the Johnson’s have FINALLY made what feels like a great decision, but does that excuse them from two decades of the opposite? In case it isn’t clear I am actually posing that question as I am unsure myself. On one hand it’s better late than never, but was it luck? Joe Douglas was the obvious best GM candidate at the time the Johnson’s were hiring. For them to not have hired him they would have had to be a newer even worse level of incompetence. So, do they get a pass? Do we forget the past and just look to the future? Jets fans are enamoured with Douglas which they should be, but most are fed up with Adam Gase already. If the Jets fired him at the end of the season, that would be Sam Darnold’s 3rd head coach in 4 years, and his 3rd offense and playbook to learn in that time as well. Definitely helps with his development and won’t set him back again at all, smh.

Jets fans DESERVE owners that care as much about their team as they do. Not owners who think with their business calculating brains and not their football hearts. To stop this deja vu we need a change at the highest position of Jets command.

I’M CALLING YOU OUT WOODY AND CHRIS! SELL OUR TEAM AND GIVE US HOPE!

We deserve so much better.