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I know it’s kind of cliché, but there are is never a dull moment around the Jets.
Another Jets player was arrested, this time it was rookie tight end Chris Herndon over the weekend.
“Herndon, 22, was driving a Nissan Armada and hit and totaled a Toyota FJ-40 Land Cruiser owned by Albert Elliott, 76, of Manalapan, New Jersey, at 4:45 a.m. Saturday on West Interstate 80 in Rockaway Township, New Jersey, New Jersey State Police spokesman Jeff Flynn confirmed to the Herald,” wrote Susan Degnan-Miller for the Miami Herald. “Herndon also demolished a railroad motorcar and the attached trailer, said a source close to Elliott.”
A lot of arrests in the Jets world in the last six months.
In December, cornerback Rashard Robinson was arrested and charged with drug possession and carelessly driving.
In January, wide receiver Robby Anderson was arrested and charged with several violations, including speeding and reckless driving.
In February, linebacker Dylan Donahue was arrested and charged with DWI and reckless driving, going the wrong way in the Lincoln Tunnel and crashing into another vehicle.
In January, linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis was arrested in Kansas and charged misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance, having no driver’s license, possession of drug paraphernalia and no display of a numbered license plate. He wasn’t a member of the Jets at the time, but they signed him on March 23 to a two-year deal.
And now Herndon.
But here the deal – the Jets are focused on signing and drafting good players, they aren’t running a monastery.
This isn’t a program where they are going to obsessed with character. They are looking for tough, talented football players.
As Todd Bowles said on Tuesday, “The arrests are going to happen, and you deal with them as they come.”
When a lawyer friend of mine heard this quote, he said, “That implies there are going to be more.”
So honestly, this isn’t about character, it’s about adding really good players.
As Bowles said today about the arrests, “Things happen in your 20s and we treat them on an individual basis and you move by.”
So he’s not too concerned with the arrests. This isn’t the Vatican, it’s an NFL football team. That is clearly how they view their program.
And I think this can help them in free agency. Like on Tuesday, when the Jets added safety J.J. Wilcox, who was about to sign with San Francisco, but changed his mind and signed with the Jets.
According to ESPN’s Rich Cimini, Wilcox changed his mind because he wanted to play for Bowles.
Not saying Wilcox has any issues, just saying that many players will want to play for a coach who is so forgiving.
“It’s not like all of us sitting in here hasn’t made a mistake in life. I, for one, have. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m without sin,” Bowles said to reporters today.
How many people would love to have a forgiving boss like this who isn’t particularly judgmental.
They want to add as many skillful football players as they can, and they aren’t going to get too caught up in loading up on choir boys.
June 5, 2018
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