Was it said?

Premium – When breaking down the MMQB.com story on Michael Vick that has caused a stir, you have to separate it into two different issues.

Here is the paragraph that is making news . . .

“No one is intimating that (Michael) Vick is washed up, which is why some Jets coaches have privately expressed disappointment that Vick didn’t show up more hell-bent on winning the starting job, or at least a little more vested in making Ryan lose sleep again as he agonized over a difficult decision,” wrote Jenny Vrentas for MMQB.com.

Bob Wischusen, who works for the team as their play-by-play announcer, tweeted, “I was also told by 5 different people in Jets organization last night that Vick story in MMQB ‘couldn’t be further from the truth.’”

There are two ways of looking at Bob’s tweet, and other denials by the Jets.

Basically, the thing they can address is that the premise is wrong, the premise that Vick didn’t compete hard for the starting job (which clearly wasn’t open to compete for).

The Jets officials denying this, really can’t claim categorically that the following wasn’t said to Vrentas – “Jets coaches have privately expressed disappointment that Vick didn’t show up more hell-bent on winning the starting job, or at least a little more vested in making Ryan lose sleep again as he agonized over a difficult decision.”

Vrentas established some very strong relationships with a few coaches during her time on the Jets’ beat.

I’m not going to do a witch hunt here, but I can think of some “source suspects.”

And because I know that she has connections there, I do believe she was told what she wrote.

I agree with Wischusen’s quote from five different people, that the premise, “couldn’t be further from the truth.” I don’t think Vick is guilty of what he’s being accused of here.

Though I do think, Vrentas was told this by a real, live Jets source(s).

Vick said about this story, “That is not true at all. … So whoever wrote that story, it was on the side of being very fictitious and you have to come up with better stories than that.”

I don’t think the writers should be accused of fiction.

I think the source(s) is/are guilty of fiction.

If that makes any sense.

Once again, I think she was told that, based on some good sources she has.

But I disagree with the premise.

Vick’s effort wasn’t an issue.

If there was an issue, it was that the competition never really existed.

“I knew the entire time that Geno was going to be the starter,” Vick said.

One beat writer thinks that the coach source, or sources, might have been trying to help the Jets out from a PR standpoint.

What does the writer mean by that?

The Jets have been criticized by some for how they handled the quarterback “competition.”

So the source theorized that if they throw it out there that Vick wasn’t competing hard for the job, it might make the decision to go with Smith more acceptable, to the people who thought Vick should be the Jets’ quarterback.

I’m don’t subscribe to this, but it is an interesting theory.

So the verdict here is that a coach (it could be just one) told the writer this, but the accusation isn’t true.

August 23, 2014

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