On Saturday the New York Jets traded All-Pro safety Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks, for a treasure trove of high draft picks over the next two years along with safety Bradley McDougald.
Adams has long been vociferous about the lack of Jets leadership both in terms of player personnel, coaches and executives. What really irked Adams however was for all the talk by Jets general manager Joe Douglas about making him a Jet for life, it appeared Gang Green was in no hurry to match their verbiage with a long-term lucrative contract that would accomplish that objective.
Anyone who has ever been promised a raise by an employer only to find that it was nothing more than hot air can certainly relate to Adams’s frustration.
On the other hand you can’t blame Jets management for wanting to get rid of a disgruntled high profile player before training camp is scheduled to begin. They certainly didn’t want a repeat of 2 when the major story was star cornerback Darrelle Revis’s holdout. Compounding matters, it was the summer the Jets were featured on HBO Sports NFL training cinema verite weekly documentary, “Hard Knocks.”
The Jamal Adams trade capped off a bad week for team owner Woody Johnson who is currently serving as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom. Johnson, who is a major contributor to the Republican Party, was appointed to the plum post by President Trump almost as soon as he was inaugurated.
Last Wednesday news outlets reported that Woody Johnson had made racist and sexist statements in his governmental capacity in 2018. The Jets immediately put out a statement from Johnson denying these allegations.
Even more damaging however was a second story in which President Trump is said to have asked Johnson to try to land an upcoming British Open for one of his golf course properties in Scotland.
While most were concerned about Trump violating the emoluments clause yet again, the amusing part of the story, as is typical of Johnson’s stewardship of the Jets, was his lack of success. I’m surprised that Trump didn’t try replacing Woody in London with New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft.
Mike Francesa surprised everyone Thursday by announcing he was leaving WFAN for the second time. He told listeners he wanted more time to travel and be with family but stopped short of saying he was retiring for good. Francesa could well have more farewell tours than Cher.
Mets closer Edwin Diaz gave up a game-tying ninth inning homer Saturday to Atlanta Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna which tied the game 2-2. Diaz was a mere strike away from preserving a 2-1 Mets win.. The Braves wound up winning in ten innings 5-3.
Many Mets fans were secretly happy to be aggravated by Diaz once again. Maybe life is slowly returning to normal.
Television lost a legend with the passing of Regis Philbin.
His last major hosting gig was in 2013 when cable’s Fox Sports 1 was launched and had Regis host a daily 5 PM sports talk show called “Crowd Goes Wild” which emanated from Chelsea Piers Studios.
It was a good show as it had terrific commentators including witty and cerebral Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay. Unfortunately it failed to find an audience and was canceled in less than a year.