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Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has an amazing knack for creating a buzz, and drawing traffic to his site.
And his approach is working. He has more traffic than the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
His latest “blockbuster” story getting myriad attention around the web is this –
“Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the discussions between the Jets and Bucs have included the possibility of the Buccaneers assuming the contract of quarterback Mark Sanchez,” wrote Florio.
And seemingly ever website that deals with NFL news linked to this story.
Honestly, the concept of “discussions” being news is overblown.
Do you know how many discussions go on about players between teams, agents, and so on? It’s endless.
It’s like the stories that came out all the time about the Jets being “interested” in a player. Remember we used to call Mike Tannenbaum, “TOES.” It was an acronym for “Turn, Over, Every, Stone.” He looked into everything.
If Jets assistant GM Scott Cohen, who handles a lot of the Jets’ action on the pro personnel side, makes a call to JaMarcus Russell’s agent to see what is up with is client, that often turns into, “the Jets are interested in JaMarcus Russell.”
Cohen works the phones all day. Every time I see the guy he’s on the phone. He talks about hundreds of players with agents, coaches, GM’s over the course of a week.
This is what personnel guys do. They throw a lot of lines in the water, and sometimes they aren’t even looking to catch a fish.
If the name of Sanchez came up in a conversation between the Jets and Bucs, so be it.
So many names are bandied about in these kinds of trade talks, or in conversations between teams in general.
I can guaranteed you this leak, if it’s in-deed legitimate angle, didn’t come from the Jets.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, they are in full lock down mode. Woody has people scared straight when it comes to leaking.
And they have even changed the security approach for people entering their complex.
I was there the other day, and I had to present a photo ID, and then had to have my picture taken for a temporary ID, that I had to give back when I left. All this to enter the building. Woody wants to know everybody who is coming and going from the complex. He’s not messing around.
When I first heard about this Florio report, my first reaction was it came from agent Neil Schwartz, who has made a cottage industry of tweaking the Jets.
Like when he and Revis decided to have the Giants’ team doctor, Russell Warren, do the player’s knee surgery, and not Jets doctor, Ken Montgomery, who has a terrific reputation (and honestly, the Giants have had some knee setbacks in recent years, like WR Steve Smith, S Kenny Phillips and CB Terrell Thomas – not blaming anyone, just point it out).
And then tweak #2 on this one – schedule a checkup with Dr. Warren the same time as the Jets’ first team meeting of the year – Monday at 8 AM.
Schwartz is constantly trying to put the Jets in bad spots through the press, to force them to trade Revis ASAP (or perhaps pay him $15 million a year). The old “squeaky wheels get the oil” approach.
This Sanchez story puts the Jets in another bad spot. Now they have to explain to the Sanchez, who is considered sensitive, why they were trying to trade him (when perhaps they weren’t). Another potential hit to his confidence. Yet another fire they have to put out.
I’m not saying the Jets wouldn’t trade Sanchez, but it will be near impossible to find a suitor willing to pick up his large guaranteed contract this year. Woody Johnson isn’t going to make a Sanchez trade where he eats most of the money for the suitor. That’s not going to happen. And considering how inconsistent Sanchez has been the last two years, no team is going to take on that full salary. Another team would bring him in for a low salary and let him compete, but no team is taking on his current 2013 salary.
Florio once told me he’s considers his website like a sports talk show. He throws things out, well thought-out scenarios that are food for thought. Perhaps he uses this as excuse so he won’t be judged as a journalist.
It’s kind of like the argument that Bill Maher is a comedian, not a journalist, when he says inflammatory things.
So Florio is more of a sports talk host than a journalist.
And this Sanchez story kind of falls into the sports talk category.
Perhaps the name was brought up in one of many conversations, but tons of names and scenarios are brought up.
That is par for the course.
April 12, 2013
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