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The Jets aren’t going to be on “Hard Knocks.” After a saga that lasted several months, now they are officially out of the running. Let’s take a look at the roller coaster ride that has been going on, that led to this decision.
Mike Tannenbaum’s announcement today about “Hard Knocks” was unusual.
Tannenbaum was interviewed at a charity event for Lupus in New Jersey, and said the decision about “Hard Knocks” is up to the NFL, and the show was a great experience in 2010.
In other words, it sounds like Tannenbaum is saying the league office can force teams on there.
That makes little sense.
Of course any team has to agree to do it.
The league isn’t going to force a team on there against their will.
The Jets are sending mixed messages on what happened here.
On Thursday, the Jets, on background, told beat writers they weren’t going to be on the show.
All the writers were told this information, not just the Daily News. They have been getting credit for the story, but every beat writer was told at the same time.
None of the writers were supposed to write about it, but Daily News went with it anyway. One of their writers, who was at Jets camp on Thursday, leaked the info to Bob Raissman, the paper’s sports media columnist. The Daily News had more than one writer at camp, so it’s hard to know who the leak was.
So it looked like the NYDN broke it, but they really didn’t. It’s hard to explain exactly what happened here, but in a nutshell, a media background session went awry.
The reason the Jets were giving the beat writers this on background, and they didn’t want them to use it, was because the NFL and HBO want to be able to disseminate news regarding the selection process. They don’t want teams doing it.
I hear they didn’t like the fact that the Atlanta Falcons had a press release announcing they weren’t going to do the show.
Let’s be honest, this is turning into an headache for HBO and the league that they can’t find a team.
But getting back to the Jets. Their brass has not really been on the same page on this for several months.
Rex Ryan and Tannenbaum clearly didn’t want the Jets on “Hard Knocks.”
Fox Sports reported in April Ryan didn’t want to do the show.
And Tannenbaum said on Sirius/XM NFL Radio in April, “We’ve done that. It was a good experience. I’m glad we did it. I’m looking forward to watching another team on it this year.”
And shortly thereafter, when his owner said he would be open to it, Tannenbaum reversed course, and said he would have no problem doing the project. A Jets spokesman spun Mr. T’s 180 this way – “he said he didn’t want to do it because he didn’t know we would be asked.”
What was going on here was simple – Rex and Mike didn’t want to do with the show, but they had to back track on that position because their owner wanted it.
Woody Johnson likes the publicity it gets his team.
But now all of this is a moot point because it’s official – the Jets aren’t going to do it.
But clearly Rex, Woody and Mike need to do a better job of staying on the same page.
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