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Vinny Testaverde had some interesting comments about the Jets and distractions. Let’s take a look at his comments and analyze what he said.
“Maybe (Rex Ryan) wants them to feel that pressure of being in the big city, playing under the big lights in New York and being able to deal with that in a week-in, week-out basis,” Testaverde said yesterday in New Orleans.
“I don’t know what his strategy is, but I know having played there, having played in Dallas, some of the bigger cities where the lights are brighter, you still need to eliminate as many distractions as you can. There’s enough distraction throughout the course of a season without trying to add to that. If you can avoid distraction, your team, I think, focuses better, which in turn leads to better results.”
The first part of the quote, clearly Vinny was just being nice – there is no way Rex is creating distractions to help his team deal with big city pressure. I can assure you, that isn’t going on.
As for the second point, he’s absolutely right.
The media is going to consistently stir things up in big markets, so you don’t need to give them extra fodder, something the Jets have done at times.
I’ve said this many times – Rex Ryan needs media training.
So often when asked controversial questions, he goes into these long harangues, instead of just doing what a Belichick, a Harbaugh brother or many other coaches would do.
Give one or two line answers, and move on. Don’t waste your time or energy. Short and to the point.
Say something like – “Tim Tebow as brought in to be the backup quarterback and run the Wildcat, that is it – next question.”
But instead he goes on and on and talks himself into circles.
He needs to give more straight answers, and stop with the spin that we can all read through. He often makes things worse when he does that.
I can’t tell you how often he’s made controversial stories even worse by not just giving a more straight forward answers.
A perfect example is the handling of Santonio Holmes at the end of the 2011 season.
After Holmes got thrown out of the huddle in Miami for having a bad attitude, Rex claimed, in his post-game press conference, he didn’t see it.
This is a perfect example of making a scandal worse.
Who believes that an NFL coach was oblivious to his top offensive player being pulled out of the lineup in the middle of a series?
And then, shortly thereafter, he said he said he was doing away with captains because it’s unnecessary.
He clearly did this because Holmes wasn’t worthy of being a captain anymore (or ever), so not to embarrass him, he did away with the concept.
Captains certainly have worked out well for many teams in the past, like with Derek Jeter (Yankees), Ray Lewis (Ravens), Mark Messier (Rangers) – the list is endless.
So when you dish this kind of rhetoric to the press and public it doesn’t help put fires out.
But like I said yesterday, while the media constantly paints the Jets are a circus, they are as much to blame for it as the Jets, if not more.
“I think that’s you guys,” Woody Johnson said after training camp about the circus image.
He’s right. While the Jets do create distractions themselves, the media often blows things out of proportion.
That is part of the New York tabloid approach, but it’s far worse for the Jets than any other area team. The New York media’s nasty behavior is on steroids when it comes to the Jets.
That is why they need to hire an outside PR firm. It’s been bad in the past, but I’ve never seen in worse than it is now.
The Jets have a horrendous image right now.
Part of it’s their fault – a lot of it is the media.
A lot of things need to change – a lot.
But I will leave you with another thing that needs to change on the Jets’ front.
According to a source close to the Jets, the owner does care about getting the back page of the paper, and wants to be on their more than the Giants.
That kind of thinking has to stop.
That should never be part of their mindset.
This is an NFL team, not the Kardashians.
February 2, 2013
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