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Morris County, New Jersey – This whole story is just so unfair, but that’s life in the big city, especially when you refuse to give background.
Like I wrote yesterday, this Mo Wilkerson story about his rehab has been blown out of proportion.
“We just didn’t have a game plan as far as myself and the training staff going into the season, and we didn’t really get one until maybe halfway into the season,” Wilkerson said. “I’m happy that we did [devise] a plan and that it’s working. I guess that I thought I was good to go, but maybe I just needed more time and more rehab.”
New York Post headline – “Mo Wilkerson: Jets trainers screwed up my comeback.”
That isn’t how Wilkerson feels. He respects the Jets’ trainers.
John Mellody is a good trainer and the Jets have a state-of-the-art trainers room.
Maybe Wilkerson could have phrased it better, but he wasn’t throwing the trainers under the bus.
Let me put it this way. Let’s say you have a back issue, and you try a few different ways to alleviate the problem until you find the one that works the best.
That is kind of what we are talking about here.
Over the course of the summer, and during the season, the Jets trainers have been all over Wilkerson like white on rice. He was under their watchful eye and spending a lot of time with them on the field and in the trainer’s room.
It just turns out the plan they worked out with Mo (like he said, he was involved) wasn’t the right one in September. They eventually figured out a better set-up.
Look, I’m no special-pleader for the Jets trainers, but I’m telling you, there was no neglect here.
But fast-forwarding to today. I asked Todd Bowles a couple of questions about this, almost throwing him a life-line to defend his trainers and how this was handled, and he didn’t take it.
He just kept saying they “handled it internally.”
Look, I’m no telling the man how to do his job, but don’t you think as the head coach of the team, he should have said something like, “John Mellody and his staff do a great job, and our players are in great hands.” Something like that.
Mellody is getting killed in the press, and unfairly, and somebody should come to his defense.
I’m not saying Bowles doesn’t have his back, but if I’m the coach of the Jets, I don’t necessarily get into the details of the rehab, but I do defend my trainer in the press conference.
The Jets get a lot of bad press, some of it is over the top, especially in the tabloids, but they don’t do a very good job of defending themselves, or giving background to explain their side of the story.
In my opinion, they need to do a better job of getting in front of stories, like Brian Cashman does with the Yankees . . .
With Nick Marshall out with a hamstring injury, Jalin Marshall will return kicks and punts for the Jets.
When you watch him in practice, he looks like Devin Hester in his prime. Quick in an out of cuts, decisive, smooth as silk.
But this hasn’t transferred to games yet.
Granted there is no tackling in practice, but when you watch him move out there, he looks special.
Maybe this is the week he finally breaks one . . .
December 30, 2016
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