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Mascot-gate continued today . . .
I was in my car today, and I stumbled upon an interview on FS1 with Jamal Adams.
The hosts were Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless.
Supposedly Bayless and Adams had a twitter fight recently over the safety tackling mascot “Pat the Patriot” at the Pro Bowl.
For a a 67-year-old man to be fighting with a 23-year-old over tackling a mascot is kind of embarrassing for the elder. He’s old enough to be his grandfather.
I’m not going to get into the back-and-forth between them from this morning. It was so ridiculous.
Stuff like Bayless saying, “Why don’t you focus more on tackling people like Sony Michel?”
And Adams saying, “90% of the time, you’re wrong.”
You get the picture.
Just one other thing here before I get to something football related that Adams got into during this interview.
There were reports that the mascot had to go to the hospital after the hit. This has not be verified.
Adams pointed out that after he tackled the mascot, “What people didn’t see is (the mascot) getting up, chasing after me and tackling me. There’s a video out there, but maybe he got injured when he tackled me.”
After the debate between Adams and Bayless about tackling the mascot (heady stuff) ended, Sharpe asked the safety about him lobbying for the Jets to sign players like Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown.
Adams went into the narrative, which we have heard from him before, that the Jets need more talent.
As I said before, he’s kind of taking an NBA approach here, where players are very involved on the personnel front.
But like I said the other day, he should probably make sure that his GM and coach want these players before he lobbies for them.
But putting that aside for a second. While Adams continues to bang the drum about the Jets lack of requisite talent, I don’t think that was their biggest problem last year.
I think there was a bigger problem for the Jets last year that transcended talent – it was a lack of accountability.
Adams probably knows that was a problem, but he’s not going to go there because he doesn’t want to call out the former coaches, especially the head coach, who he was close with.
The 2018 Jets made tons of mental errors, from penalties to blown assignments, but players would rarely, if ever, pay a price.
Adams talked about needing more talent, but they signed a corner for $14.5 million-a-year, and he really didn’t help them, aside from the game in Buffalo. So you see how big spending in free agency isn’t always the answer.
But the lack of accountability was a HUGE problem.
And it would literally take calling in the National Guard for one of the anointed starters to be taken out of the lineup.
Darron Lee was hurting the Jets’ run defense, but the coach would never pull him, and it took a league suspension for a change to be made.
Look, I’m not saying the Jets had the most talented roster last year, but I don’t think that was the reason they had such a terrible season.
It was more connected to mental errors, a lack of accountability and a rookie QB (who I think will be very good in time) learning on the job.
I think if Jamal sat down, and thought long and hard about this, he’d probably agree.
But he’s thinking right now more like an NBA player or a fantasy football player.
February 1, 2019
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