ESPNNewYork.com’s Rich Cimini obtained excerpts of Jerry Oppenheimer’s book on Jets owner Woody Johnson, and provided a few excerpts.
Obviously the main purpose of this book is to make Johnson look bad, but I think this note reflected well on the Jets’ owner.
“[Johnson] spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on practice fields [in Florham Park], but when Ryan discovered the turf wasn’t level, Woody ‘was pissed’ and had the fields torn up and new sod put in.” Ryan is quoted as saying, “We had a helicopter hovering all night trying to dry the field off before we could finally start using it.”
Maybe the author doesn’t understand sports, but the Jets’ grass fields in Florham Park and Cortland are outstanding. They are so flat, it helps prevent injuries. And spending money on a helicopter to dry them off, so players don’t slip, is an impressive thing for an owner to do.
If Oppenheimer was trying to make Johnson look bad with this anecdote, he’s out to lunch.
