This situation saddens me.
The vitriol towards Stephen Hill is out of control.
To see his wife today, with baby in hand, confronting a reporter who has been very rough on Hill, was hard to witness.
This is a football player, not a war criminal.
And a player who has worked extremely hard to improve this spring and summer – extremely hard.
“I have a hard time labeling a guy a bust when he’s done everything in his power,” Jets WR coach Sanjay Lal told the Daily News. “I’m not disappointed in him, because I know he’s given it his all. Things haven’t worked out. I’d be disappointed in him if he wasn’t trying or wasn’t attentive. And he’s none of those things.”
And though some people don’t want to hear this, he had a good training camp in Cortland. He had one bad practice, with a couple of drops, in a driving rain storm. My umbrella broke – it got turned inside out from the wind. Some of the media made a big deal about this one practice. Aside from this one day, he was terrific in Cortland.
He got ripped after the first preseason game for not having any catches. He wasn’t thrown any passes.
In the second preseason game, he had a drop, on a pass that was high and late, and he got hit so hard his helmet came off. This wasn’t the first high and late pass that got Hill lit up over the course of his Jets career.
While Hill’s first two seasons could have been better, the Jets’ quarterback play in 2012 and 2013 wasn’t great. I don’t think anyone can dispute that. Wide receivers can’t throw the ball to themselves.
Look, there is no hidden agenda here. I have no relationship with Hill.
He needs to step up this year. I’m not denying that. He knows it.
“What happens, at all positions, but especially at the receiver position, that third year they make a pretty good jump,” said Marty Mornhinweg. “That’s what we’re looking for there.”
And he’s working his tail off to take that step.
But maybe it’s just me, but I view the hate towards this guy as over-the-top.
“He genuinely tries,” Lal said, also in the Daily News. “He wants to be good. He does everything that’s asked.”
Perhaps this won’t work out, but let’s not treat the guy like he’s in ISIS.
