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The clues were there . . .
When the Jets were looking for a new GM in late May, former team President Neil Glat wasn’t involved in the interviews, but the team’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Hymie Elhai was.
This gave us a strong hint that changes were brewing on the Jets’ business side, and you didn’t need to be Inspector Jacques Clouseau to figure this out.
Glat stepped down on Friday, and the Jets announced today that Elhai is the new Jets’ President.
“For over 20 years Hymie has developed a deep level of respect from both sides of the building,” Christopher Johnson said. “Over that time, he has grown to be an invaluable and trusted confidant for many, including, in recent years, myself. Specifically, I witnessed first-hand, his leadership, communication and organizational acumen during our recent head coach and general manager searches. I expect Hymie to be a key unifier, working alongside Adam and Joe, for our organization moving forward.”
Neil Glat is a extremely bright man with degrees from Harvard Law and Wharton Business School, but while he was terrific idea man, Johnson clearly didn’t see him as a strong enough leader.
Look, most people aren’t strong leaders. It’s not a quality most people have. Strong leaders are hard to find. They don’t grow on trees.
Clearly Johnson feels Elhai represents a different level of leadership.
Glat might be one of these guys who is best served as a high ranked adviser to the top guy in a corporation, a role he served for Roger Goodell as a VP in the NFL office prior to joining the Jets.
Perhaps he’s not entirely comfortable being the guy out front for an organization, but better served as a sage consultant behind the scenes.
Johnson is clearly looking to improve the Jets’ overall organizational culture.
The way the Jets’ corporate structure is set up, the coach, GM and president all report to the owner. They are all equal. None of them report to each other; they all report to Johnson.
Johnson ousted two of those three earlier in the off-season, first coach Todd Bowles, and then GM Mike Maccagnan, and now he’s completed the clean sweep, by moving on from Glat.
But in Elhai, he’s promoting a guy who has been with the Jets for 20 years, so some might wonder if that is best way to change the business side culture, hiring somebody who has been entrenched in the organization for two decades.
But clearly Elhai has his own ideas and blueprint for the business side, and is not just going to take the baton from Glat and continue the status quo.
The business side needs some tweaks, and clearly Johnson believes Elhai is the guy to do that.
He also thinks that Elhai can help him improve the team’s culture, which has been the owner’s mission this off-season.
And when it comes to culture with an NFL football team, everything in the building matters. Everything in the building impacts the football culture – EVERYTHING.
September 3, 2019
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