Content available exclusively for subscribers
New Jersey – Heading into the weekend we have some notes of Terry Bradway, Jeff Bauer and John Idzik. Let’s get this started . . .
I saw John Idzik today.
A couple of hours ago.
He was in downtown Morristown, waiting to cross a busy street.
I was in a car driving by.
It saddened me.
I’m not here to defend his record, but just defend him on a human level.
Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that we are covering human beings. It’s not all a game.
He had a sad look on his face standing on that sidewalk in Morristown. This had to be a rough week for him with his replacement hired.
The way this man was treated by some was over-the-top.
This is a football executive who struggled, not a member of ISIS.
He tried the best he could, and it didn’t work out.
He’s a good father, good husband, a hard-working family man.
The media was killing him, some fans were hiring planes and billboards asking for his firing.
He’s not a war criminal.
Other GM’s and coaches were fired this off-season. That happens. When you get into this line of work, you expect to be fired one day.
Bill Belichick was fired in Cleveland Pete Carroll was fired by the Jets and New England. It happens to the best of them.
GM Phil Emery was fired in Chicago. Was treated with the absolute nastiness, vitriol directed at this decent man – JOhn Idzik? I don’t think so.
Such a big deal made about his midseason press conference that supposedly didn’t go well. I can’t tell you how many people ripped Idzik over this. Who cares about a darn press conference?
I guess a lot of people do. I keep hearing how Rex Ryan, “won the news conference” in Buffalo on Wednesday.
So what.
The media scene around this team is bad news. I have been covering this team for 20 years, and I have never seen anything like this.
“This beat is circling the drain and heading for the gutter,” said one long-time New York sportswriter.
One reason Idzik was treated so badly by a few reporters, aside from his record, is that he wouldn’t play ball with them, would exchange texts and e-mails with them. leaking stuff to them – locally and nationally.
Look, I know the Jets have moved on, and it looks like they hired a very good talent evaluator in Mike Maccagnan.
By the way, did you see a beat writer do a hatchet job on a Gene Smith, the former Jacksonville GM, that Maccagan is thinking of hiring in some scouting capacity? He destroyed Smith? Are you kidding me? But you know what, it’s all about the hits, so this kind of stuff gets hits. A hit job on Gene Smith? Are you kidding me?
I’m tired of the crap that goes on around here.
And seeing Idzik today on that street corner, made him think about how low the scene around here has sunk . . .
Jets scouting executives Terry Bradway and Jeff Bauer were fired today.
This was expected.
But expect most of the scouts will stay until the draft.
The scouts are 3/4s of their way through the college scouting process for the 2015 draft. Why throw all the brainpower out?
Maccagnan will analyze the scouts over the next few months through the draft. Then some myriad changes will take place.
The Jets scouting department can get better.
Less cronyism is a good idea.
Did you know that Bauer was the high school coach of Terry’s son in Missouri?
I’m not saying that Bauer doesn’t have scouting talent, but college scouting director?
As for Bradway, I think he will get another job, perhaps with Tannenbaum in Miami. Bradway is respected around the league, and should land on his feet. Perhaps immediately. Some other team can tap into all the scouting Bradway (and perhaps Bauer) have done of this year’s college players on the Jets dime.
But it was time for a change on the Bradway front. It’s a good idea for him, and the organization.
January 16, 2015
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Monday (from the Senior Bowl).
