I like all of you have been a loyal fan of this team for a long time. My misery started at 5 years old when my dad took me to see a Jets/Bills game at The Meadowlands. That was back in 1984. In 1985 while I was still very young I remember the Jets being very good but falling in the playoffs to the wild card Patriots. 1986 was the first year I vividly remember, I went to the opening game on a Thursday night and of course in typical Jets fashion they lost to the Pats (again). Then in an unreal turn of events they over the next 9 weeks they became the most exciting team in football. Of course injuries and a 4th quarter collapse killed any chance at a Super Bowl. Then for the next nearly decade and a half it seemed as if this team was in limbo, some playoff appearances but never a real threat to win the SB. Then of course you throw in the worst 2 years of my fandom and we were at rock bottom. Of course Parcells came in and made the team a SB contender if only for that one magical season. Then we under Herm hit that stretch that seemed like we were decent but never a real threat to win the SB. 2008 seemed like it was going to be our year, we were 8-3 and just beaten arguably 2 of the 3 or 4 best teams in the AFC (nobody will convince me the Pats aren't better than the Phins) and as has become the culture whether the team was on Madison Ave, in Hempstead or in Jersey but failure. The more and more that continues to pour in scares me as a fan, what I am saying is that I fear we may heading into a Chicago Cubs like era. It's already been 40 years and we have only sniffed the big game twice in those 40 years. The problem starts with Woody, I although have to admit like most people on this board wanted Mangini gone after the Seattle debacle. I am going to admit I was wrong. The problem wasn't Mangini and it never was. The problem is Woody, in his attempt to sell PSL's he went out and purchased the best players he could buy or trade for and then brought in the penultimate in locker room destroyers; Brett Favre. I at first (before the trade) was against bringing him here but after the deal I bought into the hype that with the cast of players that surrounded him he nearly wouldn't be as bad as he was in 06 when he threw 30 picks, I bought into the hype that he wanted to win a SB and would do whatever it took to accomplish that goal. I again was wrong, Brett may really want to win a SB but he isn't willing or never was willing to do what was needed to do that in New York. It was always about Brett Favre and it always will be about Brett Favre. When I read about Thomas Jones who in nearly 10 years in the league have never heard say anything remotely controversial ripping Favre and the way he was treated pisses me off. It pisses me off when I read about an anonymous player ripping Favre and the way he was treated. When I hear that Bill Cowher wants nothing to do with the Jets because of Brett Favre that scares me as a fan. The problem is that now you have a divided locker room, one that feels betrayed by ownership and management and one that has publicly ripped the team's most important player. We have a near explosive situation on our hands because of the ownership and Brett Favre. No established coach in his right mind is going to want to walk into this and ownership has nobody else to blame but itself. They allowed greed and ignorance destroy what could have finally been our finest moment. I'm not one of those people that is going to buy into the "we would have won the SB with Chad as our QB" garbage because we all know that isn't true. What I will say is that we would have been better off with Chad as our QB for this very reason, we now have a locker room that doesn't trust the ownership. We have a player that is going to dictate to management and the future coach what he wants to do, what his rules are. We are at a very crucial juncture in our history as we have the potential with the mix of veterans and young core players to compete in the near future but with the wrong decision by Tanwoody could set this franchise back to the Coslet years or even worse the 70's (thank god I didn't witness any of that) I don't know what the solution is but I like the players in that locker room don't trust the front office to do what is right. Like was said last night in another thread, how can we trust this group of people who know nothing about football to make the most important football decision in 40 years with this franchise. My hope is that Woody doesn't sell his PSLs and because of the embarrassment sells the team. I know none of my money will be going in this mans pocket but that isn't going to make a difference. Like I said yesterday I like my uncle did with his son will be steering my son away from the Jets, I have been a loyal fan for 25 years but in that 25 years I ask has this team deserved my support? Absolutely not but I am loyal and they will always be my team.
excellent thought process - I eerily agree. Not happy about mortgaging our future to sell PSL's now. I have an eerie fright that they'll go to a Mariucci to appease Favre.
Hope was left in Pandora's box. I don't get it, perhaps I never will (and probably why I'm not working for the Jets) but I wish they would make some solid all across the board decisions everyone can support. If Woody listens to the fans...how can he think Favre serves as a ploy to sell PSLs? I guess you never sell low, and after the effort Favre gave in the latter part of the season there can only be an upside with a full training camp. But back to my point, writers, fans, outsiders have never been in agreement on one decision lately, an interesting thing. The wide array of opinion illustrates the wavering ones of the FO.
I absolutely agree that the Favre-New Coach-Locker Room thing is in play. Really Favre should be thanked for the contribution that he made this year, which was considerable, and told that the Jets are moving on. This should happen quietly and privately so that he can make his choices without being made to look the fool.
Its going to take a miracle to clean up this mess. What we need to do is do what Miami did with Parcell's admit you are football stupid and hire someone to clean up the mess one more thing, This is NOT Green Bay, We do not owe Farve the 2 months to decide, either he's in or he's out... NOW. he got his 12 million or what ever it is, The next 3 years will be formed by what happens this off season. its way too important for 1 player who spent barely 1 season here to have that much influence on it. if he agrees NOW to have the scope and come back and work with team, then ok if its anything else,, cut him now. I was a big supporter of the Farve hire, but deep down I knew it was a huge gamble. One more thing, they should have included cutting Farve when they fired Mangini, To me that goes without saying. We will never get a top flight coach under these conditions, I don't blame Cowher at all for not wanting to come here.
I get the larger point of this thread but people need to calm down with the PSLs. Yes, Woody wants to PSLs but I don't think he's doing anything he wouldn't normally do to sell tickets and merchandise. It's a business and Woody is trying to maximize his profit - PSLs are a part of that but they aren't really the cause of any of his or anyone else's actions.
My sentiments exactly. This is Woody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4yUV5Bn6k&feature=PlayList&p=934C579798DE52B6
I don't think Woody felt Favre was going to be a monumental failure the last month, nobody did but to think that the PSL's were not a major contributor to him wanting Favre and still wanting Favre here is silly. I don't have an issue with a guy gambling hell I bet college sports like it's going out of style but where I have the issue is bringing this guy here and then allowing him to cripple your franchise to the point where a coach was fired, the fans have turned on the team, the players have turned on the quarterback and the front office, the best coaching candidate available walked away calling you "historically dysfunctional" and wants nothing to do with you or your QB. That isn't gambling anymore, it's sheer ignorance and madness.
The players reactions to Tanny after the Tenn. win had always perplexed me and concerned me. If in fact they felt BF was the "FO boy" and resented it, it may be the reason. The after firing comments by W and T sure depict a management who puts BF ahead of everything else. If I was the owner or GM, I would have sat down with EM and gone over what went wrong and together with EM, decide what needs to change, or if he should go. This obviously is not the way it went down. W is definitely looking to get those PSL's sold. All the shit he did last year should have had us in the playoffs and he thinks BF is still a big draw. Once he realizes that the fans and players have turned on BF, he'll kick him to the curb. And I think a lot of us agree with you about EM--we have some regrets about him leaving because he has positives and he would have stayed for 10 years. We'll never know if it was the right call. If he stayed his stubborn ass self and didn't learn, we would be no better with him. But he should have been given a chance to express his recognition that some of his ways are wrong and that he would change in 2009.
Here's the problem as I see it. The Jets were horrible in 2007, especially in the trenches. That was the reason for the 4-12 record, not the QB. Just look around the league. Is Carson Palmer a bad QB or are the Bengals a bad team? How about Bulger?? Three years ago, these guys were on the short list of top NFL QBs. But as their teams deteriorated, particularly with regard to the OL and the defense, so did they. And they couldn't stay healthy either? Are they brittle or just beaten up?? The Jets took care of business in the offseason after the 2007 disaster. They brought in two new offensive linemen, including a perennial All-Pro. And they brought Callahan in to coach this unit. They drafted a talented tight end, something this team has been lacking since Mickey Shuler. They vastly improved a defense that couldn't stop the run by bringing in Jenkins and Pace. Add in that there is strong nucleus of young players entering their prime - Washington, Cotchery, Ferguson, Mangold, Harris, Reevis, Rhodes. This means that the Jets were doing things correctly and building a team that would be competitive for years to come. The only missing piece was the QB. It was time, in 2008, for this team to find out if the QB of the future was on the roster or not, whether that was Clemens, or Ratliff, or Pennington. This was not a team that has or had a small window and needed to take a one year run at the brass ring. The pieces are in place for the Jets to be good for few years. With this in mind, the Favre signing made no sense. This was not an all or nothing year. Now we have this team with a good mix of veterans and young players. Sure there are holes - pass rush is one of them (it could be a scheme thing). But now the Jets lost another year in finding or developing a QB. That was why the Favre signing was wrong. The Jets are no futher along than they were in August and when you add in the change in the coaching staff and the team dissension, the team is worse off than they were in August before Favre arrived.
^I gotta disagree with you--it was good to go for the brass ring and it was needed. Try to recall the general feeling around the time KC and CP were "fighting" for the job--there was no sense of destiny or that this would be a special season. BF changed that and made us believe we could make an SB. The signing made total sense. After Tenn. we were all flying! We should still be playing. That we're not is on EM and Shotty. BF was the right choice for 2008. But he's not the right choice for 2009.
An extremely long post about a team that won 9 games and would have won more if we just ran the ball more, had kept Vilma, or pulled BF from games at the end. A small number of better decisions by the CS and this team is in the playoffs. All is not lost, time to cancel that emergency session with the shrink.
We were told we were doing that under Mangini. Since then we've added talent, cleared cap space, and gotten better as a team. So now we're just doing it again. The big question is why...but iunno it's not *that* big.
Good post. As I have been sayng in other threads, I am very afraid that the biigest problem with the jets right now is Woody Johnson. He's the friggin' AFC equivalent to Jerry Jones. I half-expect him to sign PacMan Jones if he thinks it will sell enough tickets!
It's the fans they have to appease, not Favre. Mariucci would not appease the fans. I haven't even heard his name mentioned, thankfully. This FO better show it's serious about winning. The only way to do that is to bring in a winner. GET SHANAHAN!!!
At the absolute minimum Tannenbaum needs to be fired immediately. He caused most of this and his still being around is only making it worse. Johnson is an absolute fool.
A nice post Rich and I have a lot in common with you. We need to get rid of the albatross as soon as possible but I have to wonder how Mike Tannabuam escapes any critism out of this fiasco. Woody to be has made the $$$$ available but he has been led by the FO. If Woody is making these decisions by himself we really are screwd. Don't steer your kids away from the Jets, it's not possible. You are a Jet and have a responsibity to pass on this curse to all you kin and your following generations.
This team is in deep trouble. It's easy to blame Favre and I am the first to admit he sucked the last 4 or 5 games of the year. He didn't however play defense and the defense couldn't stop anybody. I'm so sick of hearing how great Revis and Rhodes are. If they were so great we wouldn't have garbage QBs throwing for 300-400 yards a week. Favre also didn't run the ball and Jones all of a sudden didn't either. He averaged 56 yards a game over the last 4 yet he thinks he should be calling out Favre? Maybe he was afraid people would start looking at just how bad he was too. There is an awful lot that needs fixing and if Johnson doesn't bring in an experience coach and QB we may just well concede that it will be another 3 or 4 years just to get back to where we are now.
