Palm Beach – Black Monday hit the Jets staff hard with the announcement on March 31 that they offered buyouts to 170 of 250 employees
Sports Business Journal, which broke the story, claimed, according to a source, “Management’s motivation is cultural, not financial.”
However, some around the league feel the “cultural” angle might not be the whole story.
When Leon Hess owned the Jets, his media guide bio always started with a one-sentence paragraph that read, “It all starts at the top.”
So will firing equipment staffers change the culture?
What they did seems similar to what many corporations do in a bad economy – tighten their belts and try to run a more streamlined outfit.
“The exercise has identified opportunities to operate, align, and innovate more effectively, as we position ourselves for future growth,” a Jets spokesperson told Sports Business Journal.
So while some of these moves could tweak the culture to a degree (when Jimmy Johnson took over in Dallas, he fired most of the building), there has got to be a cost-cutting element to all of this, especially in a recession with less-than-full stadiums the last few years.
Remember, before these mass buyouts, early in 2024, they parted ways with assistant GM Rex Hogan and did not replace him, eliminating the position altogether. And then got rid of three people from their sports science department and didn’t replace them.
These buyouts and firings will give the Jets a chance to realign their organization, fill some spots (perhaps not all of them), and bring in people at new price points.
So while there could be a slight cultural element to these moves, with inflation, perhaps it goes deeper than that.
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