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Jets players need to say, “We are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.”
They team is constantly being disrespected by people on the outside, and it’s got to wear them down sometimes. All this toxicity can’t be good for their mindsets.
They are human. They have a lot of pride.
It’s time to say collectively – “Enough is enough.”
They must focus 100 percent on football, and totally ignore the outside noise. Totally!
Many of them might already be doing that.
The way people talk about this team, this organization, it can poison their souls if they aren’t careful.
Was Aaron Rodgers missing minicamp ideal? Perhaps not, but in the long run, it’s probably going to mean squat, and have no impact on how they do this season.
But some, especially on national shows, portrayed the Jets in a really bad light this week.
A lot of these people have made a cottage industry of trying to make the Jets look bad.
Here is a perfect example this week, and it actually had nothing to do with Rodgers.
There was a report that passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Todd Downing, not Nathaniel Hackett, was calling plays during two-minute drills on Wednesday.
You talk about trying to make the Jets look bad, and stir things up – wow.
Yardbarker headline based on this report – “Nathaniel Hackett benched as play-caller for part of Jets minicamp.”
Mission accomplished. The initial report was picked up by aggregators all over the country.
And I believe it’s against the guidelines set-up by the team about what is allowed to be reported out of a practice.
This is the same person who wrote on May 13 – “The Jets made legitimate attempts this offseason to hire someone who would, essentially, replace Hackett.”
This story went viral also, and was a tad misleading. They were looking to bring in another person to work with the Hackett and Todd Downing in the offensive room, kind of like a person they had when they hired the late Greg Knapp. Just another set of eyes and ears.
And this guy, going out of his way to make Hackett look bad, works for a team media partner. You don’t often see media partners behaving this way in the world of sport.
He also made a crack to Mike Williams in his press conference at minicamp about wearing a winter hat.
But the overarching point here is the players need to come together and say, “We are going focus 100 percent on football and block out all the BS coming from outside the building, and also all the vitriol and hate.”
Make the main thing the main thing.
And part of this is to do as little media as possible, and make the next six months all about football, not chasing windmills.
So when dealing with the media, especially the people going out of their way to stir things up, give them as little time and words as possible. Error on the side of brevity and cliches.
It’s time for the Jets to make the playoffs after 13 straight season missing the second season, and that needs to be the sole focus.
They have a very good roster, including a future Hall-of-Fame QB. Just focus on playing great football – nothing else. If it has nothing to do with winning on Sunday, block it out.
Tune out the noise and the troublemakers.
June 14, 2024
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