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Enough already.
I love covering the NFL.
I feel fortunate to be able to do this.
But to quote a Leonard Cohen song, “I’m sentimental if you know what I mean, I love the country, but I can’t the scene.”
The media scene around is disturbing right now.
How many freakin times are reporters (some, not all) going to ask Todd Bowles about playing the young quarterbacks.
Are these people watching the freakin games?
Look, I’m no special-pleader for Josh McCown, but this is some of the best quarterbacking I’ve seen around these parts in a long time.
Today was the final straw for me. I lost it a little.
A reporter asked Todd Bowles today about taking a look at the young quarterbacks down the stretch.
At this point, perhaps he was finally fed up, and he said that McCown will be the Jets’ quarterback the rest of the season.
I asked the follow-up question to this. I asked, “Todd are you surprised that people would ask you about the job security of a player who was just named “AFC Offensive Player of the Week?”
Think about this for a second.
Bowles was asked today about replacing a player who just got named AFC Offensive Player of the Week.”
How can you ask him that this week?
What am I missing?
And then in the locker room, following Bowles presser, McCown was asked a bunch of questions about how it feels that Bowles named him the starter the rest of the season.
I got a little agitated with the line of questioning, and asked McCown the same question I asked Bowles, “How do you feel about people asking you about your job security when you just won ‘AFC Offensive Player of the Week.’”
What ever happened to common sense?
McCown asked me after I asked the question, “Did you ask the question (to Bowles)?”
I said, “no.”
After the press conference finished, I said to him, within an earshot of most of the reporters, “I wouldn’t ask something so stupid.”
He apologized to me a few minutes later.
He thought maybe I was offended by his answer. I wasn’t.
I told him I understand why he had to answer the way he did. He’s a lot more diplomatic than I am. He answered that way because he clearly didn’t want to get into a pissing match with the other reporters.
I’ve said this before and I will way it again, if he’s health, McCown should be the Jets’ quarterback next season.
He’s playing the best ball of his career. He’s in such a good place right now, Mentally, after 16 years of pro football, he’s at the top of his game. He’s also in a system he loves.
Forget his age. Drew Brees is the same age, and Tom Brady is two years older. And both of those guys have more wear-and-tear from a lot more starts.
So why do the Jets need to play the young guys? To me, Petty is a backup QB, and Hackenberg needs to get to another off-season after what he showed in the summer.
And honestly, I think if the Jets benched McCown, who is playing really well, Bowles would lose the locker room.
The players love how he’s playing and they love playing with him.
December 6, 2017
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