East Rutherford – Woody Johnson needs a right-hand man who is a football guy, not a financial advisor or a lawyer.
There is nothing wrong with financial advisors and lawyers being heavily involved on the business and legal fronts, their wheelhouses. You need those guys with NFL teams, considering the myriad business and legal matters you are constantly dealing with.
But these people should ideally try to stay clear of football matters. The Jets have missed the playoffs 15 years in a row.
Johnson needs somebody like Rick Spielman, the Jets’ senior football advisor, to be his sounding board right now. Johnson needs to be on the phone with him every day.
Jets team president Hymie Elhai is a brilliant lawyer. Johnson’s right-hand man, Ira Axselrad, is a brilliant financial analyst.
But in a perfect world, they should not be advising Johnson on football matters.
That should not be taken as a shot at either. I respect Elhai for his legal mind, and Axselrad for his investment acumen.
Just saying Johnson’s right-hand man on football matters needs to be a long-time football executive or coach. Spielman is a two-time NFL GM.
Johnson needs to lean on him to help his team get out of their current malaise, not lawyers and financial analysts.
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