By Kevin Murphy ’12
As a New York Jets fan, this offseason has been increasingly hard to watch. I cannot grasp what the Jets’ front office is doing. It’s as if everyone in the organization suddenly has a Giant (pun intended) inferiority conquest.
Over the past few years, it has been the Jets getting all the hype going into the season behind the “soon to emerge star” quarterback Sanchez and the “mastermind” of defense, Rex Ryan. It never panned out, and now the Jets are in a tailspin, seemingly grasping at any headline that can detract attention from the one meaningful fact.
The Giants won the Super Bowl, and they are now New York’s team.
The Jets traded for Tebow, last season’s worst starting quarterback (admittedly Sanchez wasn’t a whole lot better). Is it possible that the front office thinks that this is a so-called “game changing” move? Do they really believe addingTebow as a backup quarterback is improving our team?
More likely, Tebow is going to bring an absurd media circus to the Jets locker room, not dissimilar to the one he brought to Denver. It will not be long until either Sanchez is forced out or Tebow-mania turns the entire nation against the Jets.
On Tuesday, the Jets signed a professional rugby player from Australia to play TE. As a rugby player myself, I think this is awesome, and I’m looking forward to postgame interviews in which he references “footie” or “marmite,” leaving TV journalists speechless.
Realistically though, I’m left wondering if this is a wise move. The Jets already have TE Dustin Keller and there is an NFL draft ahead, so is it good thinking to take a chance on someone who has probably barely seen, and certainly hardly played, football in his whole life?
As the icing on top of this awful cake, Jets owner Woody Johnson is now dropping hints that the Jets want to appear for the second time on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series. This would bring even more attention onto the Jets and all their problems from the apparently increasingly toxic locker room to a likely contentious battle for the starting QB spot.
I can understand the Jets wanting to keep their share of attention in New York, but it’s starting to look like the front office is more interested in staging a soap opera than winning a championship. And this is likely to be the kind of soap opera so bad you have to watch.