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Kenrick Ellis is going to jail for 45 days for punching a student in the face, breaking his nose and jaw.
The fight occurred in 2010, while Ellis was a student at Hampton University (formerly known as Hampton Institute.)
It’s very important to keep in mind the Jets picked this player, knowing that Ellis faced possible jail time and deportation (he’s a citizen of the Jamaica, not the United States.)
This wasn’t a guy with a clean record who surprisingly committed a crime after he arrived in Florham Park.
Ellis claims that Eley was threatening him with a baseball, so the punch was in self-defense. Clearly the judge in Hampton wasn’t entirely on board with that. If she was, he probably wouldn’t be going to jail at all.
And remember, Ellis transferred to Hampton after getting thrown off the team at South Carolina for failing a few drug tests (not one.)
I believe in second chances, but his is a third chance because bad things happened at South Carolina and Hampton.
Why was it so important for Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan to pick this kid in the third round?
Now that he’s going to jail, this is a mark on both of them.
The problem here is this troubling mindset of Tannenbaum, that Ryan can coach anyone because of his people skills.
If you want to take a late round flyer on a kid like Ellis fine, but third round?
And keep this in mind. Ellis was overweight last season – not in very good shape. Now, all the work he did in the 2012 off-season with strength coach Bill Hughan, could go by the wayside in jail,  where he will spend the 41 days leading into camp, and the first four days of camp.
And this kid is still raw, and needs every rep he can get. Missing the first four days a camp (and maybe more – remember, he needs to get from the jail in Hampton, Virginia to Cortland, New York, once he’s released.), isn’t good for him. He needs  a lot of work.
I have to be honest, every time I interview Ellis, I’m shocked he’s the guy with his rap sheet. He’s a very cordial, polite, soft-spoken kid.
And I’m not rooting against him. He’s from a very poor Caribbean island, and he’s pursuing the American dream.
But let’s be honest, Tannenbaum was wrong about Ellis’ legal issues.
“Based on all the information we have, we’re comfortable taking him,” Tannenbaum said in 2011, after the Ellis’ pick. “Maybe his risk is more than others. But if we didn’t feel like there was a path to have him be successful here, we wouldn’t have taken him.”
There is no way Tannenbaum thought that path would include jail time.
Why would any NFL team, pick a player, knowing he was going to jail?
It’s time for Tannenbaum to stop thinking his coach is Father Flanagan.
He’s a football coach, and a pretty good one.
But to think he’s anything more than that, is short-sighted. He knows how to coach football, he’s not a shrink, a probation officer, etc.
And Tannenbaum thinking his coach has a magic wand, leads the Jets GM to make personnel decisions that are very risky, like drafting Ellis and giving the mercurial Santonio Holmes 24.5 million in guaranteed money.
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