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A news website asked me the following question for a story they were doing on “PlaybookGate” – Did Mike Pettine leave the Jets on a bad note with Rex Ryan?
The implication of the question was that would Pettine have motivation to make Ryan look bad because things didn’t end well.
Make no mistake about it, that MMBQ.com story with Pettine saying Rex gave Nick Saban a copy of the Jets’ playbook, made Rex look bad.
So did Pettine leave the Jets on bad terms?
I don’t know if he left on a bad note with Rex because the Jets coach is somewhat passive aggressive, and continually acted like nothing was wrong. But there is no question Pettine left the Jets on a bad note.
Over the course of Pettine’s last year with Jets team in 2012, the Daily News beat writer broke a bunch of stories on the Jets, and also had a lot of unnamed quotes. Most people in the building and who cover the team, believed Pettine was the main source. Whether you like him or not, the Daily News beat writer had a banner year in 2012 breaking stories. Last year, not so much.
“Manish Mehta has had a thousand stories this year,” said WFAN host Mike Francesa in December of 2012. “He’s been the Jets worst nightmare.
“He has a very good source which is worst kept secret in the world. Everyone in the world knows how close he is to the defensive coordinator (Mike Pettine). It’s not a secret there. Everyone in the building tells everybody he’s the source. It’s the worst kept secret in the world. There isn’t anyone who covers that team that doesn’t know it’s a fact.”
Now in fairness, if you read Mehta’s work, there was clearly more than one source, but the feeling in the building, and with the local media, was that Pettine was leading the charge.
It’s hard to tell how Ryan felt about this because he showed little ankle on this issue, but there is no question, the Jets’ hierarchy, like owner Woody Johnson and Ira Axselrad (who I consider they most powerful man in the Jets’ organization), knew they had to get rid of Pettine after this.
And the off-season that followed, there was a gag order put in within the Jets’ organization, following the leak-fest in 2012.
I ran into a coach at the airport going to the combine, and he said everyone was told “don’t talk to anyone.”
So yes, Pettine left the organization on a bad note.
With Rex, the relationship seems great, like the leaking never happened.
To be blunt, I found a lot of the coverage surrounding Pettine’s departure in 2013 to be mythology.
The common narrative was – “Pettine is a really good defensive coach, who needs to get out of Rex’s shadow if he wants to be a head coach one day.”
There was almost no talk of him needing to get out of Florham Park because of the leaking problem.
No, that had nothing to with it. Right.
And then seeing the coverage in Buffalo after the hire – nothing about any leaking problem.
And then as the season went on, the writers up there started to view him like a defensive guru.
He did a decent job in Buffalo, but let’s not overrate it.
But when reporters fall in love with you, and you consistently give them what they want, often you can do little wrong.
Pettine charmed them, just like he’s charmed so many others before.
He knows how to play the media game.
You scratch my back, and they will scratch your back.
So when he left the Jets, there was very little coverage of the main reason why he had to leave.
Why?
Let me ask y’all a question? Do you think he was just giving stuff to one reporter?
So in closing, yes, he left the Jets’ organization on bad terms with the media mess he helped cause in 2012, but no, he and Rex are cool. Like brothers.
June 25, 2014
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