Collapsapalooza

I was going to spend this column going off like a dental drill, but I decided against it in the end. The problem for me, and a lot of other long-time fans of the team, is that we've seen this movie many times before. Being a New York Jets fan often means being seduced and abandoned in December.

You won't find a lot of sympathy around the NFL. In the market where I reside the local fans are subjected to Carolina Panthers football, which makes the Jets look like the 70s Steelers. I had the great joy of witnessing last weeks abomination courtesy of some tickets from my friend Bob, and Atlanta made the Panthers look like a high-school team. Carolina can't win any matchups in their front seven, and their receivers are unable to separate and get open. It's hard to believe that they won a game this year.

Much like an NFL version of Scared Straight, watching the Panthers made me appreciate the Jets. At least there seems to be a foundation at key positions on the field that will allow the franchise to compete into the future provided that they have better drafts than they had in 2009. Young players like Nick Mangold, Darrelle Revis, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, and David Harris form the cornerstones of the foundation. You may notice that I've left Mark Sanchez out of this equation, simply because I still have no idea what the end product is going to look like with this kid.

To say I've been disappointed with the way that Mark Sanchez has reacted to the situations he's been placed in the last 2 weeks would be a vast understatement. Sanchez has been wildly inaccurate, which is usually followed by the same hang-dog look you would see on a 9-year old who strikes out with men on base in a Little League game. He has not delivered, but even worse, he looks defeated. Rex Ryan admitted during the week that he considered pulling Sanchez in the second half against Miami, and it's hard to blame him. In the Jets 4 losses, they've scored a total of 18 points. If you can't score, you can't win.

I'm not going to go into the gory details of the last few weeks. If you've been watching, I'm sure you're as frustrated by all of it as I am. Most NFL players are able to move on to the next week, even if the fans are looking for a larger meaning in every poor performance. The facts are that the Jets are 9-4, regardless of how they've gotten there. They are still in the position that if they win this week in Pittsburgh and get some help, they can qualify for the postseason by the end of the day.

Here's a stat you may see today...the Jets have never won a game in Pennsylvania. I believe we're 0-6 lifetime in Pittsburgh. The Steelers will be without Troy Polamalu, his injured ankle, and his luxurious hair. Ben Roethlisberger has been battling multiple injuries and his offensive line is patchwork at best. But, they still have a devastating defense that is able to force mistakes and limit scoring opportunities. This isn't exactly the defense that you get well against.

For the Jets to have a chance to win, they will have to run the football against a team that only allows about 60 yards a game on the ground. They will have to avoid mistakes and recognize that punting the ball and playing the field position game while trying to force mistakes may be their best opportunity to win.

Young fans of the Jets deride the Same Old Jets fans, the people who have witnessed the horrors of seasons past and seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop, hedging their emotional bets to protect against the psychological damage of another unhappy ending. I don't consider myself a SOJ fan, but I feel their pain. It's hard to get up week after week when you know your team may not have what it takes to win it all, much less this Sunday's game. All it takes is one solid performance to have the whole fan base and the New York media singing a different tune on Monday morning.

Kickoff is 4:15 today at Heinz Field.

Hearts and Minds

Yikes.

It's not often that a 9-3 team has to spend the week before their Week 14 game trying to prove they're legitimate. But, this is the position the New York Jets find themselves in after last week's misery in Foxborough.

Without rehashing the abomination, the Jets failed in every phase of the game. There were portions of the second half where the defense appeared to quit, which was somehow a better performance than the offense had. The offense appeared to quit sometime after the first possession.

There is far too much football remaining in the regular season to let last week's 45-3 loss destroy what had been built in the first 11 games. The Jets secondary looked completely lost without injured safety Jim Leonhard, and they have 4 games left to find a solution for the total breakdowns that took place Monday Night. The primary concern for the team for the rest of the regular season is to fix the glaring issues they're having and be playing the best football they can by wild card weekend.

This week, the Dolphins come to town clinging to their playoff lives. Chad Henne always seems to play well against New York, although the Jets were without Darrelle Revis in the first meeting of 2010. If Brandon Marshall's hamstring is healthy enough for him to go for Miami, he will have to cope with Revis outside, and should have a more difficult time on Sunday. The confidence of the entire offensive team, particularly Mark Sanchez, hangs in the balance this week. In their 3 losses this season, the Jets have scored a total of 12 points. Against New England, Sanchez missed even the easiest throws, badly missing short passes designed to gain yards after the catch. If Sanchez struggles with these types of throws, it makes you wonder if he'll be able to handle downfield passing if there is wind and cold in January.

If Sanchez continues to struggle, Jets fans may see a repeat of last January's game plan, with Sanchez throwing about 20 passes per game as the Jets try to run the ball down everyone's throat. It's a solid gameplan, as long as you don't fall way behind early. The running game was effective for most of the first half, but it wasn't enough to avoid a 3 TD deficit at halftime.

Which Jets team will we see on Sunday? Will it be the confident team that won 9 of 10 before last week? Or will it be the team that failed to show up last week, suffering the franchise's worst defeat in 24 years? The truth lies somewhere in between. I believe this team is not ready to be the best team in the league yet, but it certainly is better than losing by 6 touchdowns on national television. The weather forecast is calling for rain at the NMS, so the Jets will attempt to play caveman football and control the clock. This may be the way they have to play to compete the rest of the season, as Sanchez has regressed over the past few weeks.

There are multiple collapses littering the New York Jets history. They have become rites of passage for a battered fan base that has been led down the primrose path before. Waiting for the other shoe to drop has become too common a custom for Jets fans. The fans deserve a far better effort than they got last week. If the Jets want to be taken seriously as a football team, they must get a victory against Miami. After Miami comes Pittsburgh and Chicago on the road, so the opportunities don't get any easier. Step one in saving the Jets season kicks off at 4:15 pm on Sunday.

Training Camp begins...without Revis?

By all accounts, it appears that Darrelle Revis intends to miss the start of training camp, risking the $20 million in guarantees he has left on his current deal. With the premier of Hard Knocks less than 2 weeks away, this storyline is sure to dominate the show.

I have a confession to make...I fucking hate talking about contracts. They are the easily the most boring aspect of pro sports. I don't know who is right in this scenario, and I don't care. The facts (or as close as I can estimate) are that, from the Jets' point of view, Revis held out for a deal his rookie year, and now that his base pay is low for this season (which he wanted, a front-loaded deal), he wants more money. He has three years left on a deal that he wanted so badly, he held out for it. And now it's not good enough.

From Revis' point of view, he's set to make a base salary of $1 million a year, and, since he's the best player on the best defense, he deserves to make more than the highest-paid player at his position, who makes about $15 million a season. After witnessing the horrifying injury that former Jet Leon Washington suffered last year, it doesn't serve Revis to perform for such a low amount of money, with no further guarantees. Plus, GM Mike Tannenbaum promised him a new deal, and if the Jets can't guarantee the new contract against injury and skill (which they can't within the rules set in place in the absence of a cap), then they need to pay him a lump sum to keep him happy.

Can the Jets do that? Sure, they can pay him a lump sum bonus to try to make him happy, but I doubt they will. Owner Woody Johnson and Tannenbaum don't want to set a precedent with the other Jets who are unhappy, and they feel like if Revis can do this to them now, what happens if the team wins a championship? Can't the whole team hold them hostage the same way?

The 400 lb. gorilla in the room is the Jets cash flow position currently. There is plenty of speculation that the Jets currently lack the resources to pay a lump sum to Revis, given the fact that they've just built an enormous new stadium and have yet to sell all of the PSLs that they thought would go like hotcakes. Perhaps there isn't enough in the till to fork over a huge bonus currently.

Where do I stand? Normally I'm on the side of the player in situations like this, since they assume so much risk just lacing them up every week. I think Revis is picking the wrong time to make this stand, and he's going to do irreparable damage with a portion of the fan base that wants players to honor their contracts, regardless. All I care about is the well being of the team. If Revis does anything to screw this season up, I'll be pissed, and I won't be alone.

I'm not like most football fans my age (and younger). Most of the fans in my age group are going to spend countless hours over the next few weeks analyzing every preview magazine and website they can get their hands on for an edge in their fantasy football draft, which will happen sometime in the next month.

I don't play fantasy football.

In fact, the idea of rooting for the Bears' third WR to have over 55 yards receiving this week so I can win a "matchup" with another couch potato doesn't interest me in the least, and runs contrary to everything that football is supposed to be about. I could just see myself having to draft Wes Welker or Brandon Marshall, or another skill position player on a rival team, then rooting for that player to perform, against the best interests of the Jets.

I don't need fantasy football to make the game more interesting to me. I almost feel bad for the guys (and girls) that do. There is plenty happening every Sunday in the fall to hold your interest if you like football without having to play make-believe GM with 9 other people.

Because I give my full attention to a real team as opposed to a fantasy team, perhaps I have more invested in this situation than most. If it goes bad, as it has before, there is no rooting interest in place to take my mind off of the disappointment.

I hope Revis shows up for camp today at 5:30 pm, so he's not technically a hold-out, but I'm not holding my breath. Like most Jet fans, I just hope the situation works itself out before it becomes yet another distraction for the 2010 team.

Ryan and Tannenbaum extended...Revis talks begin again

More good news from Jets HQ yesterday as Woody Johnson signed head coach Rex Ryan to a 2-year extension and re-signed GM Mike Tannenbaum to a 5-year contract, which means that the brain trust of the franchise is under contract until 2014. In addition, the Jets have once again started negotiating with their best player, CB Darrelle Revis, on a new contract. If the Jets and Revis are unable to come to terms on a long term deal before the start of training camp tomorrow, the hope is that they can increase the $1 million base salary that he is to receive this season as a stop-gap measure until after the season. Hopefully, a new deal or an increased base salary for this season will satisfy Revis enough to bring him to training camp on time.

It's an unusual time to be a Jets fan, if for no other reason than the fact that some portion of the fan base is typically dissatisfied with the front office. In my three decades of following the team, only the brief reign of Bill Parcells in the late nineties provided the same piece of mind. You can make a pretty good argument that the fan base feels better now than we did then, only because there was always the feeling that Parcells was only going to be with the club for a minute (which was fairly accurate, as he recorded 3 years as coach and 4 as GM).

Parcells was like the sports equivalent of your first pretty girlfriend, meaning that he was fun to call your own, but it was only a matter of time before he got a better offer and left you. Since he left New York after the 2000 season, he had a similar tryst with the Cowboys before settling in Miami. I don't think any Jets fan feels like the Ryan/Tannenbaum combo is going to leave for another team. They have both shown a commitment to make the organization a place that players want to play and coaches want to coach, a dream destination. They have the full confidence of the fan base, for the foreseeable future.

A Final Word on The Decision

It's nice to be back sleeping in my own bed after 8 days away from home. I believe that the air mattress was created for people who are less than 100 lbs.

I'm glad, now that the whole LeBron debacle has ended, we can put the NBA to rest for the next several months. In the words of the brilliant and funny Jason Washington, when considering the NBA once the football season ends, "Is this what we're reduced to?"

When you take a step back from the LeBron situation, it begins to make a lot more sense, and, when you consider LeBron's career path, his decision is a clear window into who he is as a pro and as a person.

Few people in the history of sports (or any other endeavor, for that matter) have led as charmed an existence as the self-proclaimed "Chosen One". LeBron has been one of the most famous basketball players in the country since he was a junior in high school, when he petitioned the NBA to be draft eligible before he had graduated high school. He has been celebrated as a superior player to all of his peers, and many of the legends of the game, even before he had an opportunity to develop. James was embraced as someone who combined the best parts of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, someone who could create his own shot from anywhere on the floor, but also possessed the court vision to make everyone around him better.

To give LeBron full credit, he is one of the best athletes I've ever seen, and, in my opinion, the best athlete in the history of the NBA. The only combination of size and speed that I would compare to LeBron would be Bo Jackson, who also was in the category of "force of nature". Because LeBron came to the NBA fresh out of high school to a terrible Cleveland team, any hiccup in his development was excusable. The most familiar refrain for LeBron was, "When he develops a mid-range game, look out!" It was almost an after thought that he would care enough about his legacy as a player to become as great as possible. Once Cleveland put the players around him, James would start to win titles, and there would be no stopping him.

A funny thing happened on the way to immortality. LeBron never produced the titles or developed the varied offensive game necessary to win in the postseason. When the chips were down, LeBron had to barrel to the basket hoping to draw fouls, or pass off to less talented teammates and hope they produced. After flaming out in six games to the Celtics in 2010, LeBron James got a taste of something different.

Criticism. Lots of it.

LeBron had spent 7 years as emcee of his own sideshow with the Cavs, immune from the normal pressures of other athletes. He would choreograph elaborate skits for his teammates to perform before the game, always letting the crowd know that it was about fun to him. When he was booed in the second half of his poor performance in Game 5 of the Boston series, for the first time as a pro, he was being held responsible for what he wasn't, which was an outstanding athlete, but far from a complete player.

The Cavs front office went out of their way to make LeBron and his loyal entourage as comfortable as possible. This meant constructing their practice facility as close to James' residence as possible, employing some of his friends within the organization, and acquiescing anytime they had another opportunity to prove to him how important he was. It's been a charmed life in Cleveland for LeBron. Cleveland invested in LeBron, hoping it would pay off with championships. Part of getting the perks of stardom is shouldering the responsibility when it goes bad. If LeBron's choice revealed anything, it was that he really doesn't want any part of that responsibility.

LeBron's a free agent, meaning that he's earned the right to go wherever he pleases. This is part of the collective bargaining agreement that his predecessors earned, and I don't begrudge him his choice. I always felt that Chicago was the best fit for LeBron. The Bulls need someone like LeBron, they have all of the other pieces to win it all. What they need is an alpha male besides their point guard, the outstanding Derrick Rose. But, choosing Chicago (or New York, New Jersey, or anyplace else) would have meant taking responsibility for success or failure. And LeBron wants no part of that responsibility.

Choosing Miami meant that LeBron could play second banana to Miami's BMOC, Dwayne Wade. Wade owns Miami, already a champion from the 2006 Heat. Whatever the new crew in Miami accomplishes, LeBron will have one less than Wade. And he's fine with that. We're used to our NBA greats wanting their own team, so when it gets to be nut-cutting time, there's no doubt as to who's in charge. James' decision is such a departure from that way of thinking. Maybe future players in this position will go the same route. Whatever he achieves in Miami, it will go with the caveat of choosing to be Dwayne Wade's backup dancer, so he will never get to the level of a Jordan, or even a Kobe. And that's OK. Not everyone is meant to be "King".

As to how this relates to Darrelle Revis, Will Leitch had a great article about how the whole ESPN show about LeBron made him feel stupid to be a sports fan, and a lot of what he had to say rings true for me. It was funny to hear Revis' rumored threat to hold-out a few days ago (since denied, by the way), and the reaction of fans to that threat on fan sites like theganggreen.com. Whether the fans knew it or not, the ones that root for both the Jets and the Knicks seemed browbeaten enough that they no longer gave a shit. There were several that said, "Fuck him, we can get 2 first rounders for him." All it takes are a few disappointments and fans begin to wonder why we bother in the first place. The players don't share the feelings we do, as much as we'd like them to.

Anyway, this should be it for the NBA for awhile, thankfully. David Stern got what he deserved when he chose to promote the player and not the game, which is a sport made up almost entirely of divas. With each new autumn comes more of a team game, whether it's football or fútbol. It will be here soon enough.

What Would Revis Do?

In an offseason full of roster turnover and great expectations, perhaps the biggest story of the offseason for the Jets has been the ongoing contract negotiations for Darrelle Revis.

The Jets moved up to take Darrelle Revis in the 2007 NFL draft, and he has become the cornerstone of the best defense in football in just 3 seasons. Revis allows the Jets to play man-to-man on the best receivers in the game, while freeing up the rest of the secondary to play zone coverage on the other side of the field. There are several corners in the NFL who have this ability, however, none of them cover the other team's best receiver exclusively (most remain on one side of the field), and no one has had the kind of success that Revis enjoyed in 2009, at least since the rules have changed to penalize virtually all incidental contact as illegal contact.

If the Jets are at fault, it's that they promised Revis a new deal, then spent the better part of a year telling anyone and everyone that Revis was the best defensive player in football. When Revis came to collect, he wasn't going to settle for less money than Oakland Raider CB Nnamdi Asomugha, even if Asomugha's deal from the Crypt Keeper (the nearly-fossilized Al Davis) was ridiculous (3 years, approximately $45 million). Revis hasn't seemed willing to compromise off of his desire to be the highest paid corner in the game, even though the Jets face potential problems re-signing many of their key guys (C Nick Mangold, LT D'Brickashaw Ferguson, and MLB David Harris, to name a few), and with no idea if there will be a salary cap in 2011, and what that cap would be if there is one in place. Also, there is 3 years remaining on the contract Revis signed coming out of college, a contract he held out for 3 years ago.

Like most conflicts that involve money, there is plenty of blame to go around. Hopefully, both Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum have learned a lesson about how to discuss their own players to the media. If you run around telling anyone who will listen just how special your players are, there's probably a pretty good chance that player is going to use those words against you in re-negotiation. From Revis' perspective, he may want to take into account his teammates who are in the last year of an expiring deal in this situation. I know that football is every man for himself 99 times out of 100 when you are bargaining for a deal, but the Jets have a chance to contend with their core group for years to come, and if any of the other potential free agents have to leave New York so that Revis can stay, well, let's just say that the fans will remember just how selfish he chooses to be.

I don't think you would be able to find any Jet fans who want to see Revis in a different uniform as long as he's in the NFL. He has a chance to be the best player in the history of the franchise if he's able to maintain what he's started with New York. There are still financial incentives available to players in the largest media market, incentives that are exclusive to the tri-state area. Just ask any former champion from a New York City team how much income they are able to generate after they hang it up as part of the sports history of the city.

As far as the New York's front office is concerned, they must handle this deal the right way, because it will have long term ramifications if they blow it. The Jets are already fighting the perception that their word isn't worth anything, as several ex-Jets who were promised deals from the front office were left with nothing, namely Chris Baker and Pete Kendall. The Jets fan base wants to see the kind of commitment from their front office that serious contenders undertake every year, especially right after requiring PSL money from a large portion of their season ticket holders to help finance their new stadium. Hopefully, this contract situation will be resolved before the start of the season. A slow start in September has a tendency to bring unresolved contract issues back into the media. With a fair share of distractions already on the agenda for 2010, beginning with the Hard Knocks series on HBO, the Jets can ill afford anything else that can disrupt their plans for a deep run in January.