The benefit of the doubt

Premium – With the Jets-Giants preseason game coming up, there is an important issue regarding the landscape that needs to be considered.

The Jets get a lot of negative coverage in the New York media.

Much more than the Giants.

The Giants are given the benefit of the doubt more than the Jets.

The default setting with the Jets, with so many in the media, is to error on the side of making the Jets look bad.

This eats at a lot of people in the building at One Jets Drive.

And they do try to deal with it.

We often see a certain PR guy, talking to the writer of an article that just appeared, that the Jets feel was unfair, trying to state the team’s case.

Recently, the PR guy was having a long talk with a writer who he thinks wrote some negative stuff.

As we all know, the Jets have been getting crushed by many in the media for the state of their cornerback position.

But as the team official said to the writer I just referenced, “We have two cats out.”

That is a very legitimate point.

Think about it.

The Jets plan for this season, whether you like it or not, was to have Dee Milliner and Dimitri Patterson as their starting cornerbacks.

So when Milliner hurt his ankle, and Patterson hurt his quad, this left the Jets without their two projected starters, for the second half of training camp.

So the team official has a valid point. The two starters are currently out, so why are you destroying us?

And both are expected back soon. Patterson says he will be ready for the opener, and Milliner’s return date is still to be determined, but likely sometime in mid-late September.

Obviously the Jets also lost Dexter McDougle in camp to a torn ACL. He was likely going to be in their nickel and dime package.

So to trash the Jets over their cornerback situation, when three guys who were all a big part of their plans, went down in camp, is somewhat unfair.

But like I said, the Jets rarely get the benefit of the doubt in his market (and also with a lot national media).

It’s en vogue to make them look like clowns.

Which is unfortunate.

I’m as critical of the Jets as the next guy, but I try to keep my criticism above board, and not resort to low blows or personal shots.

I think the Jets need to come up with a new game plan to deal with reporters who go out of their way to make the club look bad.

And one part of that plan is to stop giving the perpetrators special treatments, like one-on-one interviews with prominent players, the head coach and front office executives.

If you keep treating these people like they are doing nothing wrong, nothing will change.

But it’s pretty amazing to me how the two NFL teams in this market are treated so differently by the New York sports media.

I think they should both be treated the same – no double standards.

August 21, 2014

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