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New Jersey – I know some people totally panned John Idzik’s address. I didn’t, but this part of the opening speech probably wasn’t handled in the best fashion.
John Idzik got destroyed by many reporters, and some fans, for his “State of the Jets” address yesterday.
Like we mentioned yesterday, there were some in the press that he was in a no-win situation with. He was going to get creamed no matter what he said. Some in the press don’t like him, and one reason why is he doesn’t give them anything. How often does Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta get ripped? I will leave it at that. You do the math.
But this part of the speech was ill-advised. Here it is . . .
“That’s another reason that our 1-7 start is disappointing, so disappointing. Because I know of the quality of people that we have in this organization and it starts right at the top. It starts with our owner, Mr. Woody Johnson. He cares deeply about the Jets. He cares deeply about our fan base. He cares deeply about our community. He knows what responsibility we have as the New York Jets. He affords us every resource that we need in order to be successful. We’re sitting in one right now.
“We enjoy a fantastic stadium that we experienced yesterday. And it’s not only the physical resources, it’s the human resources too, the people in this building and their commitment to the Jets. It extends to our president, Neil Glat, and the business operations side. I see what they do (and) how diligently they work in trying to bring us closer to our fan base and our fan base closer to us as a team. I see what they do for the gameday experience. I see how hard they work to make it right for our Jets Nation.
“It certainly extends to my side of the house in football operations. Once again, I’ve been around a lot of football teams. I’ve been involved in various aspects of football operations and I would say our football operations staff here, they’re second to none. Ask our players. They want for nothing. We have it here. The player programs, our medical and training staffs, our strength staff, our equipment staff, our security staff, we have it right here. There’s a reason for that – to elevate our players.
“Certainly, our commitment certainly extends to Rex Ryan and our coaching staff.”
This really ticked people off.
Hey, I understand Idzik’s loyalty to the people in the building, and there are a lot of quality people in there who do a good job.
But people don’t want to hear about your great staff at 1-7. They just don’t.
How can you sell to the Jets Nation what a great job everyone is doing with a 1-7 team?
That would be like a car company talking about what a great job everyone is doing as they are announcing a recall.
I know a lot of the people in the building since I’ve been around there so long, whether it’s on the marketing, business or football side. I know the janitors and the chefs.
I understand there are a lot of quality people in the building.
But it’s a really bad strategy, at this stage of the game, to give a speech, and talk about how wonderful everyone is who works there.
And this part of the speech really hurt Idzik in the court of public opinion.
I know he meant well, but he overdid it, at this particular juncture.
October 28, 2014
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