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Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio announced that the Jets intend on making a run at Jim Harbaugh.
“Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has said he’s staying put. That won’t keep at least one NFL team from trying to lure him back. Per a league source, the Jets are the team that is planning to make a run at Harbaugh after the season ends.” – Florio announced.
The Jets felt the need to issue a statement to shoot this story down.
Statement from Christopher Johnson, Chairman and CEO:
“Todd Bowles is our Head Coach. There is no truth to the report of our interest in Jim Harbaugh.”
Some were a little surpised at this statement.
First off, if you are going to respond to rumors, you are going to spend a lot of time doing this, because plenty of those are on the way, especially in the click-bait age.
These days, more stuff is thrown out there then ever, since the name of the game is getting clicks for your website.
Perhaps the Jets felt a need to respond to this rumor since Pro Football Talk is such a highly- trafficked site, so a lot of eyeballs saw this story.
The second part of this statement that surprised some people was stating, “Todd Bowles is our Head Coach.”
He is expected to be fired after the season. The season ends on Sunday, so why make a statement that has such a short shelf life?
As I’ve reported before, a league source told me that the Jets intend to fire Bowles after the season, and the first Buffalo game was the final straw, the game that Matt Barkley lit them up.
Others have also reported it’s fait accompli he’s going to be fired.
So why even bother to make the statement that “Todd Bowles is our head coach,” when he could be gone in a week.
Perhaps they did it to keep the players focused with one game left. Thinking that the organization is already planning to make a run at their next coach, with one currently in place, could be a distraction.
I personally would have ignored Florio’s report. He throws a lot of stuff against the wall, and a lot of it doesn’t stick.
I stopped going to his site in the summer. Too many agendas.
But I’m sure this story made him a lot of hay in the click-bait department.
And honestly, there is really no price to pay for getting a story wrong.
How will this hurt him?
And he claims he’s sticking to the story.
He already got all the clicks.
There is no clickbait police that will put give him a clickbait suspension.
As for Harbaugh, while he’s a really smart coach, and has proven he can be a successful NFL coach, he would be a bad fit for the New York market.
He had issues with the San Francisco media and now Ann Arbor/Detroit, so in NYC, especially with this group of beat writers, it would be a disaster.
And while I generally don’t like to make the media a big deal when it comes to hiring coaches, because this is mostly about football, not press conferences, unfortunately, in the nation’s #1 media market, you can’t ignore the media factor.
Harbaugh is prickly with the media, and sometimes a little weird.
If the Jets make a change, they need to hire a coach who is not only a great football coach who is a top-shelf strategist and great communicator who holds players accountable on an off the field, but somebody who will play ball with the press. I’m not saying leak stuff, but be a friendly and answer the questions without bristling. Just get the media stuff out of the way without coming across as it’s like root canal to you. Even if you hate it, don’t have an attitude about it. Smile, be cordial, give quotable answers and then get back to your football responsibilities. Don’t act like it’s an inconvenience.
So to me, the Jets need to hire a great communicator, not just with his players, but the press.
Harbaugh and the NY press would be an utter disaster.
Plus it doesn’t look like he’s leaving Michigan, so it might not even matter.
December 24, 2018
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