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Rex Ryan brings Woody Johnson out of his shell
Posted by Mike Florio on March 27, 2010 3:26 PM ET
Not long ago, the Jets were languishing in the shadow of the Patriots in their own division, and the Giants in their own stadium. The low profile came from a combination of a culture of secrecy within the organization, and an inability to consistently win enough football games to force the franchise into the spotlight.
Owner Woody Johnson didn't design it that way. When he purchased the team in 1999, the ultra-quiet Bill Parcells ran the show. And so the organization remained reclusive from Parcells to Al Groh to Herm Edwards to Eric Mangini. The common thread was G.M. Mike Tannenbaum, a Tuna protege who bought into the notion of keeping things on the down low, primarily since he apparently regarded it as a way not only to remain employed but also as a path to the top of the ladder.
But the franchise bottomed out in 2008, after an attempt to generate excitement in the wake of the Giants' shocking upset of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII via a trade for Brett Favre resulted in a late-season collapse that saw the Jets out of the playoffs -- and Mangini out of a job. Perhaps, in hindsight, Johnson's decision to trade for Favre was the first sign that Johnson wanted to do things differently, that if the franchise was going to fail it would do so with a flourish.
Enter Rex Ryan. A year later, Ryan's personality and approach have apparently clicked with something Johnson had repressed, based on Greg Bishop's compelling look at the new Johnson in today's New York Times.
Now, after making it to the AFC title game in the same season that the Giants experienced an embarrassing fall from grace, Johnson and the Jets are fully out of their shell. "We're coming into our own," Johnson said, per Bishop. "We're becoming who we want to be and who we are."
And so the Jets will continue to be brash and bold. Hey, if they want to be New York's team then they need to reflect New York's style. Thus, they'll revel in their newfound notoriety, soaking up even more of it via Hard Knocks and signing the flashier LaDainian Tomlinson after dumping the more effective yet anonymous Thomas Jones and openly complaining about perceived coin-flip shenanigans and continuing to follow a course that embraces attention, not shuns it.
It might not be the way that others would go about building a consistent contender, but the Jets don't seem to care. After all, they can't completely control whether they succeed on the field. But they can control the image they project to the rest of the world, and they plan to be loud and proud, win or lose.
And though plenty in the league will balk at this approach, we kind of like it.
Posted by Mike Florio on March 27, 2010 3:26 PM ET
Not long ago, the Jets were languishing in the shadow of the Patriots in their own division, and the Giants in their own stadium. The low profile came from a combination of a culture of secrecy within the organization, and an inability to consistently win enough football games to force the franchise into the spotlight.
Owner Woody Johnson didn't design it that way. When he purchased the team in 1999, the ultra-quiet Bill Parcells ran the show. And so the organization remained reclusive from Parcells to Al Groh to Herm Edwards to Eric Mangini. The common thread was G.M. Mike Tannenbaum, a Tuna protege who bought into the notion of keeping things on the down low, primarily since he apparently regarded it as a way not only to remain employed but also as a path to the top of the ladder.
But the franchise bottomed out in 2008, after an attempt to generate excitement in the wake of the Giants' shocking upset of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII via a trade for Brett Favre resulted in a late-season collapse that saw the Jets out of the playoffs -- and Mangini out of a job. Perhaps, in hindsight, Johnson's decision to trade for Favre was the first sign that Johnson wanted to do things differently, that if the franchise was going to fail it would do so with a flourish.
Enter Rex Ryan. A year later, Ryan's personality and approach have apparently clicked with something Johnson had repressed, based on Greg Bishop's compelling look at the new Johnson in today's New York Times.
Now, after making it to the AFC title game in the same season that the Giants experienced an embarrassing fall from grace, Johnson and the Jets are fully out of their shell. "We're coming into our own," Johnson said, per Bishop. "We're becoming who we want to be and who we are."
And so the Jets will continue to be brash and bold. Hey, if they want to be New York's team then they need to reflect New York's style. Thus, they'll revel in their newfound notoriety, soaking up even more of it via Hard Knocks and signing the flashier LaDainian Tomlinson after dumping the more effective yet anonymous Thomas Jones and openly complaining about perceived coin-flip shenanigans and continuing to follow a course that embraces attention, not shuns it.
It might not be the way that others would go about building a consistent contender, but the Jets don't seem to care. After all, they can't completely control whether they succeed on the field. But they can control the image they project to the rest of the world, and they plan to be loud and proud, win or lose.
And though plenty in the league will balk at this approach, we kind of like it.