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Douglas handled it right . . .
Before I continue to break down Joe Douglas’ press conference from Tuesday, want to say something about Burner-gate.
Manish Mehta wrote that Adam Gase has a burner account on Twitter to counter the negative criticism he gets on that platform. Some people accused an account that uses the name WyattV18 of being the burner. That account has since been shut down.
But some have accused Mehta of being the man behind the WyattV18 account.
Personally, I don’t believe that to be the case.
I don’t know who WyattV18 was, but I can almost assure you it wasn’t Mehta.
As first reported by jetsconfidential.com, a league source told us that Gase had a burner account in Miami. I was told this last winter after Gase took over the Jets.
So the idea that Gase might have/had a burner account with the Jets is entirely possible. But my guess is that if he has/had one with the Jets, it’s not him actually handling it, but a friend or family member. Look, it’s really hard to see a friend or family member getting eviscerated on social media on a daily basis. So if somebody came to his defense on Twitter, some of you can perhaps understand that.
But I think it’s ridiculous for people to think Mehta was behind this account. I’m not special pleader for Mehta, but that’s grassy knoll thinking going a bit too far . . .
Now let’s continue our break down of the Douglas’ presser.
Q)Do you want Le’Veon Bell to be a part of the team next season?
Douglas: So, my personal experience with Le’Veon has been very positive. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do as a person, as a teammate. I touched on it last time I talked to you guys, he’s one of our best workers, he’s one of our best teammates, he connects and engages with everybody. So, I can’t say enough positive things about Le’Veon.
JC: Douglas handled this perfectly. In fact, he handled it better than Coach Gase, who when asked this question, handled it this way:
Q)Would you like Bell back as the starting running back in 2020?
Gase:He’s under contract for three more years. You can ask Joe (Douglas) tomorrow.
Q)Would like Bell back in 2020?
Gase: You can ask Joe tomorrow. I’m not in charge of personnel.
These answers created a national story.
Look, Gase has a right to be a little agitated by the Bell subject right now. The guy blew off his first off-season program (aside from three-day mandatory mini-camp), often hesitated hitting designated gaps, and went bowling the night before a game he was inactive and so forth.
But even if you aren’t a fan of Bell’s act, you can’t let the media know that entering the off-season. Just say nice stuff like Douglas, and allow the off-season to play out.
Gase clearly doesn’t like the reporter who asked these two questions, They have been at war most of the season. So clearly he let his feeling towards the reporter impact his answer about Bell, which is a mistake.
You need to compartmentalize your personal feelings about a reporter when answering questions in press conferences that the public is going to view.
So Gase could learn a lesson from Joe on how he answered this question. Take the high road, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to move on from the player.
Plus if you are going to try and trade a player, and other teams suspect the coach doesn’t want him, that can lower the market value of the player.
January 2, 2019
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