How Can Anonymous Jets Comments Be a Sign of Discord When They All Seem to Agree?
Woke up to all these headlines about anonymous Jets players “ripping” Tim Tebow. So of course I assume that the Jets locker room has fallen apart again with infighting. I go read the quotes and that doesn’t seem to be the case. What it sounds like to me is a bunch of guys (including team staff) frustrated with the media and fans calling for Sanchez to be benched despite the fact that 1. Tebow is terrible (as one defensive player put it) and 2. the Jets have no receivers took an opportunity from a gossip rag to say what they’ve been dying to say.
Not the best way to do something but I sure do understand.
it’s fine for the media to report this story as being about Tebow since the Daily News only wrote the story because of him, but to miss the rest of the picture entirely is just nuts to me. Dissing Tebow isn’t a sign of a locker room falling apart because it’s clear that nobody and I mean nobody, including Coach Ryan I would assume, even sees Tebow as a part of the locker room. The team, like many people in the public, doesn’t even take Tebow seriously. Further, how can a team be in discord when they all are saying the same thing!
To the second point, about the lack of Jets receivers, it’s a point rational people have tried to make all season especially after seeing the ridiculous number of pass attempts Sanchez has made in some games. When Antonio Cromartie said he was the second best receiver on the team behind Santonio he wasn’t just tooting his own horn–he was letting people know that the team is in desperate need of talent on offense. But, again, the mostly turned that into a story about how cocky Cromartie is.
I thought it was interesting that the quotes about the receivers were mainly attributed to team staff. We already knew Woody Johnson was out of touch, now we know his employees agree.
In terms of the Jets players making their comments anonymously, the media has made impossible to criticize Tebow on record no matter who you are. Obviously, a player shouldn’t criticize teammates period — on record or off — but when the media and by proxy the fans are missing the big picture repeatedly players get frustrated. I think the Jets players are genuinely worried that they will wake up one morning and Tebow will be starting QB for their team. Rex Ryan clearly doesn’t want that to happen, but he probably also didn’t want Woody Johnson to sign him the first place.
There are no guarantees here especially since the media has told players what they think of Tebow for an entire year. Remember, the Broncos defensive players had to wait until Tebow was traded to dispute the media’s recount of Tebow “inspiring” them to play better.
In a nutshell, from my perspective people tried to defend Mark Sanchez and Ryan’s decision not to play Tebow in the wrong way. But is it a sign of discord or a desperate plea to Woody Johnson to get rid of the circus guy and get some real personnel. I vote for the latter.
Related, Peter Carroll has stated that he didn’t think bringing Tebow helped Sanchez AND he said that Tebow is a distraction. At this point who can disagree?
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