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The problem is there is usually no price to pay, and there should be. If you don’t stand up for yourself, who will?
And because there is almost never a price to pay, the Jets have turned into low-hanging fruit for critics.
Quite frankly, it’s gotten a little out of hand this off-season.
It’s always been pretty bad, but this off-season it’s been horrendously bad.
Last Thursday, New York Giants guard Justin Pugh tweeted, “At the airport and I forgot a hat. They only have @nyjets hats. All of them untouched. Literally not one @Giants hat left…Wonder why?”
What’s up with that?
I’m no special-pleader for the Jets, but why does Pugh feel he needs to go out of his way to dis the Jets?
The Giants are supposed to be a classy organization.
Why go there?
Why do so many go there? Because they can.
The Jets almost never fight back.
They need to fight back more.
And interestingly enough, somebody finally fought back after this frivolous cheap shot from Pugh. Mo Wilkerson did.
“LOL (Laugh out loud) bro, now you got the red dot see you 8/26 at MetLife.”
This was so rare, a Jet official or player fighting back, I was caught off guard.
I’m not being flippant. I think this is a big problem.
People need to follow Wilkerson’s need and fight back more.
I once had a long chat with a Jets official about the cheap shots, and he said during the conversation, “We just need to win to stop it.”
I have never entirely agreed with this premise.
Common decency should have nothing to do with winning and losing.
The Jets have become a punching bag, and usually take it.
They need to counter-punch more.
This attack came from an opposing player. The bigger problem is the media.
The clearly think they can say or write anything about the Jets and there are no ramifications.
Do you know what tweet has been on the front page of NFL.com, the league’s own website today? I will give you a hint.
“At the airport and I forgot a hat. They only have @nyjets hats. All of them untouched. Literally not one @Giants hat left…Wonder why?”
Why would the league’s own website run an attack on one of the member clubs, and leave it on the front page of their own website all day?
Because they can.
I can guarantee you, they would do this to Robert Kraft’s New England Patriots or Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys. These are probably the two most powerful owners in the league.
If I were running the Jets, I’d call Roger Goodell, and ask him to “Please take that crap off the front page of the league’s website.”
That website also regularly runs blogs that make the Jets look bad. It’s almost like they want to show they can be objective, and since the Jets don’t fight back, they rip into them, with no price to pay.
NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah wrote recently, “I think the Jets might have the worst roster I’ve seen in a decade,” one league executive said.
Think about this for a minute. The Jets are one of 32 member clubs in the National Football League. NFL.com is run by the NFL. This quote really hurts the Jets’ imagine and perhaps their ability to sell product – tickets, merchandise and so forth. Who would put up with this? They are cannibalizing the Jets.
Somebody should make a call.
We will have Part II of this series tomorrow.
July 11, 2017
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