Jets Fans Stuck With Hopeless Ownership

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My birthday present from the Jets was being spared from getting upset over watching another wretched loss.

The Jets were on their bye, but that didn’t mean they stayed out of the spotlight. Leaks escalated into an overflow of bad vibes emanating out of One Jets Drive all week.

Much of it centered around owner Woody Johnson, the petulant trust fund baby who has no understanding of how to run a football team. The Jets (3-8) are a laughingstock who are headed for an offseason where they’ll need to hit on a General Manager/Head Coach/Quarterback trifecta. What are the odds that Johnson will hit on even one of those picks given what we’ve learned about his leadership? Good owners stay in the background, but Johnson’s fingerprints are so all over this current mess that if it were a “Law and Order” episode, finding and convicting the culprit wouldn’t even get you to the first commercial break after 10 minutes.

Back when I was writing for WFAN, I posted a column (Jets’ Johnson Brothers Garner Top Spot For Worst Owner In NY) on why the Jets had the worst owners (Woody’s brother Christopher was in charge then while Woody was serving in the first Donald Trump administration as Ambassador to the United Kingdom) of all the New York area pro sports teams. I remember getting more flak than usual from those quick to counter with James Dolan of the Madison Square Garden tenants or the Mets Wilpon’s. 

They were all pikers compared to the Johnson’s overwhelming incompetence, I said then and was proven correct. Combine Dolan’s prior meddling with the Knicks (somehow those readers chose to ignore how well the Rangers were run) with the Wilpon’s notorious cheapness and you get why the Jets are closing on in 14 consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs, the longest drought in any sport.

Not that I believe everything in The Athletic expose or Jay Glazer’s report on the Jets’ turmoil this season—they conveniently came after Johnson axed GM Joe Douglas on Tuesday and read like a Douglas list of grievances and excuses—but the part about Johnson balking about spending money rings familiar. I’ve heard that the Jets pay less than other NFL teams when it comes to staffing the front office, so it wouldn’t sound shocking if budgetary concerns crept into football decision-making.

Of course, the Jets have always pinched their customer base for more money at every opportunity. Those personal seat licenses that fans were required to purchase for the “privilege” of holding season tickets? Some “investment”, as they were once billed. They’re basically worthless now, since the sales department routinely offers those vacated seats without them.

Often you hear fans and the media clamoring for Johnson to sell the team. It’s unrealistic and a waste of energy. Owners don’t part with their toys unless they envision a downturn in their profitability. You’ve seen a little of this in the NBA, where there have been several turnovers in controlling interests or, in the case of the Brooklyn Nets, a 15% sale for a minority owner. That’s because the league just completed a mega deal for TV rights that some believed set the top of the market.

The NFL, however, continues to print money, with room to grow in terms of adding games/nights and expansion. Even if Jets season ticketholders staged a mini strike, I don’t know if even that would send Johnson to his local broker.

No wonder Jets fans are caricatured as angry and bitter at the world. All they want is a weekend outlet where they can feel some joy. Johnson has been depriving us for most of his 25 years as owner, with no change on the horizon. It’s hopeless.

The Jets will be heading into a monumental offseason where they’ll need to start from scratch after this season’s carnage that will extend until whenever quarterback Aaron Rodgers is excised from the roster. What the franchise requires most is a President who oversees all things football, like when George Young saved the Giants from the Mara family dysfunction in the 1980s. It could even be someone in the vein of the Knicks Leon Rose, a former NBA agent who keeps Dolan at bay while delegating the day-to-day GM duties to his own underlings. That has worked out quite nicely at MSG.

Unfortunately, I don’t have high hopes that Woody Johnson, who is rumored to be aiming for another Trump post in 2025 and will again have to offload his Jets responsibilities to Christopher, the guy who allegedly allowed Peyton Manning to convince him to hire the disgraced Adam Gase as Head Coach in 2019, will go that route. Beyond being too expensive, Woody likely still views himself as a football savant and seems to want to retain full control over every aspect.

The most probable scenario (contrary to reporting by CBS): Johnson works with a search firm to compile a list of GM candidates to interview, most of whom will be first timers because they typically would command less money. It should be noted that the Jets can’t talk to current executives until after the regular season.

The HC search can run parallel to the GM process, though the expectation is that the GM will be chosen first. I am dubious, however, that Johnson will then give his new GM carte blanche over the HC decision, instead sticking with the org chart that shows everyone reporting to him. So you can immediately cross out all who crossed Johnson in the past, like Bill Belichick or, The Athletic’s sleeper pick, Eric Mangini. For those who believed the pecking order changed with Douglas in 2019, see the Week 5 Robert Saleh firing without the GM’s input. As Douglas noted then, they all serve at the pleasure of the owner.

An owner who was subsequently quoted that “thinking is overrated.” As if Johnson’s instincts as a Chief Executive have been so spot on. Someone should show him the “Seinfeld” episode “The Opposite” on repeat.