Content available exclusively for subscribers
It’s time for another serving of Dan’s Website Whispers. We get into a number of topics in this edition. Lets get it started . . .
A Jets beat writer tweeted today – “The NFL lockout hasn’t stopped Jets CB Antonio Cromartie from his training in Southern California. Take a look (and there was a link to a photo).”
I’m not getting something here. What is so novel about a player working out during the lockout? Most players are.
Actually I do get it. Tweets like this will lead to that writer breaking the Cromartie contract story once the lockout is over.
I’m not judging here – just keeping it real . . .
Everyone is saying that July 15 is the date the lockout needs to be resolved for business as usual.
So if the lockout goes past that date, we were wondering how that might impact the Jets training camp at SUNY-Cortland.
Jets training camp generally starts at the end of July or beginning of August.
Let’s say it starts August 1 like last year.
If it has to start late, how late can it start taking into account when it has to end, based on the student’s arrival for the fall semester?
“Classes start the last few days of August,” said a Cortland source. “So if they came a week late their camp would need to be just two weeks.”
Remember, when he says that classes start the last few days of August, that isn’t when the students arrive. They start showing a week earlier, and begin checking into the dorms, some of which, the players are housed.
So the bottom line is – Rex really wants Cortland, but they really need to start on time, or it might not work . . .
Leon Hess was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame this week.
While he gets mixed reviews as an owner, but what a great American success story!
Started out with one oil truck, and look at Hess Gas now.
The people of the Island of St. Croix loved the man. After a hurricane ravaged the island, he rebuilt schools and such.
But the one anecdote I will always remember, and it’s a topical issue right now, is that he hated the concept of charging for preseason games.
Under Hess, the Jets had awful preseason attendence. The stadium was a ghost town, but he didn’t care. He didn’t think it was right to charge for such a substandard product.
Toward the end of his ownership run, he did give in on this issue, but he held out for a long time.
Remember, a big reason Roger Goodell wants an 18-game season is that he wants to kill two preseason games. He knows the fans hate them.
Goodell started his career in the Jets PR department, when Hess was the owner.
Also, an 18-game regular season would also generate more money for the owners and players to divide up.
Clearly it’s not going to happen this year.
The owners have already taken it off the table because the players say it’s a non-starter.
But the players need to think about little bit about the fans on this issue.
We understand why they don’t want 18 games – the violent nature of the sport.
However, they also have to realize the fans are getting ripped off in the summer, and something needs to be done about that.