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The scorched earth campaign continues . . .
Jamal Adams continues carpet-bombing the Jets on social media to force a trade. The latest attempt was a passive aggressive response to something Jets safety Marcus Maye tweeted.
“I been getting all this new fake love now!!! Smh,” Maye tweeted.
Adams responded: “Brotha just keep being u. Show the world why you’re the best FS in the Game. U deserve everything coming your way. I’m a miss balling with u the most. Believe that! Love you forever brotha.”
By the way, for those not up on Twitter parlance, “Smh” means “shake my head.”
Notice Adams tweeted: “I’m a miss balling with u the most.”
He took this opportunity to praise Maye’s skill set, to also mix in his own agenda about wanting to leave the Jets. Some might consider this somewhat narcissistic.
Think about what he did here. He inserted himself into the Maye’s twitter thread to further his own agenda.
Maye is the consummate team player. He is the kind of guy who could play for Bill Belichick – great character, smart and a hard-worker. It’s well-documented he’s had injury issues, but last year he was able to stay healthy. He’s not a star player, but a solid contributor.
Maye isn’t a controversial guy. He’s very down to earth. He’s not the kind of guy to cause a stir, but Adams roped him into to his agenda, and made him part of a national story that went viral on the internet.
Why couldn’t Adams just tweet: “Brotha just keep being u. Show the world why you’re the best FS in the Game. U deserve everything coming your way.”
That would have been a good way to show great support for his friend.
Why did he need to add, “I’m a miss balling with u the most” when he was two years left on his contract?
Adams ended up making a compliment to Maye into a national story about himself.
The Jets have had scorched-earth campaigns before by players trying to get new contracts, like Darrelle Revis in 2010. But the difference is Revis stayed out of it. He let Neil Schwartz do all the dirty work, with the help of the agent’s friends in the media.
This time, the player, and his agent, are both on the frontlines.
Almost on a daily basis, Adams makes news with something on social media, including a couple of days ago when a fan asked him if he’s coming to Dallas and he’s said, “I’m trying.”
To a small degree, I think Adams carpet-bombing is working, and I will tell you why.
Joe Douglas is trying to build “the best culture in sports” and what Adams is doing is hurting the cultural re-boot. To have a strong football culture, you need all your players buying into the program, especially the star players. What Adams is doing is a major distraction to the players and coaches, and impacting the cultural rebuild.
So since Douglas is so early in cultural construction project, he probably needs to to think long-and-hard about moving on from the player, for the sake of culture.
Remember what Peter Drucker once said: “Culture eats strategy for lunch.”
But, Douglas can’t give him away.
He needs to get a strong offer, and then pull the trigger.
And if he does trade him, this isn’t caving to narcissism, but making sure the cultural re-boot gets off to a strong start, with all players buying in.
If you think Adams is causing a distraction now, wait until he is forced to come back into the locker room without a trade or contract extension.
June 23, 2020
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