We didn’t need the Jets to tell us. Turning on an innocent teammate is wrong and doing it anonymously is cowardly.
That’s just what this group did, a defensive starter who chose not to be named calling Tebow “terrible,” according to The Daily News.
It’s indicative of a pervading cancerous culture in the locker room.
It was evident that dysfunction prevailed last season, as LaDainian Tomlinson and others said captain Santonio Holmes quit on the team.
Bringing in Tebow was seen by some as a way to repair or bring leadership to a fractured group. In Denver, the Broncos came together and elevated their play as a whole once Tebow took the reigns from Kyle Orton. In New York, this cast of characters has made him their new outcast.
“We have Greg . . . and we have an athlete,” offensive lineman Matt Slauson said about the Jets' backup quarterbacks.
At least he had the guts to put his name on it.
Tearing apart Tebow, who has barely seen the field, is a new low for a team that seems to set the bar lower each week. Their only consistency besides poor performance is an inability to shut up.
As if Wednesday wasn’t enough, Shonn Greene added more fuel to the fire Thursday, quoted by Yahoo Sports saying: "You feel bad for Mark, but at the same time you want to win games. We're not here to protect people's feelings. If you want to win games, you've got to try something. If somebody's not getting the job done, you see if somebody else can do it. It's the same with coaching, or any position. You don't mean to belittle someone or say 'he sucks.' That's just the harsh reality."
As the Jets head to St. Louis, they are in a state of chaos, floundering on the field and falling apart off of it.
In my last post Sunday, I wrote about how this team needed to be quiet. It took just a few days for a new string of quotes to explode. Last week, it was Antonio Cromartie saying the beleaguered bunch would make the playoffs. Now, the Tebow firestorm.
The scary part is the Jets seem to operate in an alternate universe where delusion is the reality.
“I believe this team is together, will continue to be and maybe even become tighter,” Ryan said Thursday, as it is more and more apparent he has lost control.
As a fan of Ryan, this is alarming. The fourth year head coach’s record is solid, with two AFC Championship appearances in his first two seasons. But his ability to steer his team through adversity is now coming into question after it was a strength in the past.
The dysfunction seems to emanate from even higher up though, all the way to the top. In 2008, owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum reportedly pushed for the trade that brought Brett Favre to the Jets against head coach Eric Mangini’s wishes.
Reports (albeit unsubstantiated ones from “sources”) say Johnson could push for Tebow to start at quarterback. It wouldn’t be shocking, considering something prompted the Jets to jettison Drew Stanton, who they had already signed to be their backup QB, when the possibility of Tebow presented itself.
The amount of coverage Tebow reaps is undoubtedly over the top. But now he has become a victim outrageously ripped for nothing of his own doing.
Tebow and the Jets were never a good fit. From the moment the trade went through you were left scratching your head.
Bringing Tebow into the mix didn’t push Sanchez to play better. He hasn’t breathed life into the stagnant offense. His acquisition has created even more dissension and controversy for a team that needed none of that on the heels of last year’s meltdown.
No true franchise quarterback has donned the green and white since Joe Namath. That’s no coincidence as the Jets do a better job at destroying quarterbacks than developing them. They sucked the life out of Chad Pennington, a strong-armed college quarterback at Marshall, in Paul Hackett’s vanilla west coast offense.
They’ve surrounded Sanchez with “skill players” that a Jets official called “garbage” in the Daily News story and seemingly shattered his confidence along the way with the Tebow move.
Now, even Tebow, who thrived in an offense catered to his skills in Denver, is in danger of being sucked into the vortex of vitriol.
It’s sad really. A split with Tebow is the move that needs to be made come season’s end. Give him a shot somewhere else. He’s just a distraction in New York - and the Jets need no more of those.
When it comes down to it, the players can talk all they want during the week but they can’t be anonymous come Sundays. Their play speaks for itself.
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