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Some of stuff these guys do is crazy . . .
. . . and actually hurts their teams more than it helps them.
Talking about meddlesome NFL owners getting involved in major football decisions.
Of course it’s their right to do it, but so often this kind of meddling doesn’t work out.
Like Daniel Snyder signing Albert Haynesworth or Bud Adams picking Vince Young or David Tepper firing Ron Rivera in the middle of the season (they got blown out in every game the rest of the way).
I could go on forever.
The Jets acquiring Tim Tebow, Brett Favre and Darrelle Revis the second time – you get the sense those were all owner driven.
I hear there are owners around the league that want there teams to sign Tom Brady to sell tickets. On some of these teams, the personnel guys don’t want him.
Look, the best ownership approach is to hire a really good football boss and get out of the way.
Early on in his ownership of New England, Bob Kraft was very hands-on with the football operation. That didn’t work out that great. He then hired Bill Belichick, and got out the way, and now he’s got a bunch of rings and trophies. Granted, the emergence of Tom Brady was a factor, but we have seen many teams with elite quarterbacks not win championships. Belichick’s defense, and the way he runs the whole football operations, along with Brady’s quarterbacking, are all part of championship formula.
49ers owner Jed York turned the corner by hiring Kyle Shanahan to a six-year contract and getting out the way. Yes, they also hired John Lynch, but make no mistake, Kyle runs that show.
The bottom line is owners meddling in football stuff usually doesn’t end well.
I think Christopher Johnson gets this.
He pretty much leaves his football people to run his football operation. He told Joe Douglas he’s going to essentially leave him a lone to do this thing.
Christopher isn’t the kind of guy who would push for back page grabbing personnel moves like Favre and Tebow. His brother, yes, Christopher no. They are wired differently.
The problem for Christopher is he inherited a GM and coach situation that turned out not to be ideal, and made things worse by extending both guys. That was a rookie mistake.
And then when he needed a new coach, he had the former GM and team lawyer (now team president) in on the meetings and the three of them picked Adam Gase, who had rough first season with the fans.
We will see how this Gase thing turns out.
Then Johnson did the right thing by hiring Douglas as his GM, a man universally respected for his personnel acumen.
What the Jets clearly need is for Douglas to be the football boss of EVERYTHING, not just player personnel.
If Gase doesn’t work out, Douglas needs to pick the next coach, not lawyers or business people.
What I’m trying to say here is, while the jury is still out on Christopher as an owner, I do think he gets the fact that he needs to let his football people make the football decisions.
Unlike some other owners, he’s not telling his GM and coach who to pick and play.
So that is a good thing.
Now he just has to make sure he has the right football people in charge.
Douglas looks like a keeper.
With Gase, we shall see.
February 19, 2020
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