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People wonder why it hasn’t happened yet.
Talking about a coaching change for the 0-5 Jets.
NFL teams are not democracies. This is a referendum you can’t vote on November 4, whether Adam Gase should be fired or not.
It’s really up to the owner and nobody else.
And he doesn’t want to fire coach, at least not now.
You might say the fans do have a vote, they can stop buying tickets and hurt the team’s revenue.
But obviously there are no fans allowed at MetLife Stadium this year.
So losing fannies in the seats isn’t even a factor this year.
Also, you could have raucous home crowds chanting, “Adam must go” at home games, like they did many years ago with their “Joe must go” changes in the 1980’s directed at Joe Walton.
Obviously fans can’t do that this year.
So no fans to lose at the gate this year, and no fans to chant him out of town at home games, changes the dynamic this year.
You might feel that if they don’t fire him, it will hurt their season-ticket renewals next year.
Well the operative words there are “next year.”
While some Jets fans might be livid right now that Gase is still the coach, and they will be livid as long as he stays the coach, the Jets could kick the can to the end of the season, and while fans will some fans will be ticked for the next few months, if the Jets move on after the season, and make a great hire to replace him, the season-ticket renewals should go fine, aside from some fans not wanting to go to stadiums anymore after COVID-19.
And there could be a financial element to not wanting to fire Gase now. First of all, he makes a reported $5 million-a-year, on a reported four-year deal, so if the Jets fired him, they would have to eat the salary they owe him for the 11 games and two years remaining on his deal. This after eating money on Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan’s deals. Throw in the millions they are losing by not having fans in the stands, and that is quite a financial hit.
Don’t forget, one of the most powerful figures in the Jets organization is Ira Axselrad, the money manager for Christopher and Woody Johnson. He’s not going to want the brothers to take a bath financially. It’s his job to grow their money.
If the Jets fire Gase now, they will have to promote an assistant coach to interim coach, and likely have to give that individual a bump in pay for the rest of the season. The best candidate to be interim coach is probably the team’s firebrand special team’s coach, Brant Boyer, who’s a great motivator. Some had thought Gregg Williams could be an ideal interim coach, after holding that position in Cleveland after the firing of Hue Jackson in 2018. However, the way the Jets’ defense is playing this year, it’s probably hard to go down that road right now.
So the bottom line with the Gase situation is it’s entirely up to Christopher Johnson, not fans on Twitter, or the media. and aside from Johnson having a hard time making that move right now with his hand-picked choice last year, there also could be some financial elements to delaying something many people considering inevitable.
October 12, 2020
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