Santonio Holmes Needs to Watch What he Says in the Media

July 30, 2012; Cortland, NY, USA; New York Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes (10) at the New York Jets practice. Mandatory Credit: William Perlman/THE STAR-LEDGER via US PRESSWIRE

Santonio Holmes has been proving himself on the field so far during camp. He has looked good, and has been leading by reaching out and talking to his younger receiving counterparts. I am not going to take credit away from him for doing that. He has looked good, and it can only be a positive when a veteran shares his knowledge with younger players.

The Jets, according to a report, are limiting Santonio Holmes’ media access. That’s a good thing, and maybe they should limit it more, because as far as interviews are concerned, he doesn’t get it. Well, either he doesn’t get it, or he isn’t as over last year as he would like us to believe. He is not a leader off the field when you listen to him, and he reallly should stop talking, because some of these quotes just don’t help.

Take his quote about last year, for example. During the interview where he discussed the two quarterback system, he was asked about LaDainian Tomlinson, and specifically, to respond to LDT’s thoughts about him being a problem in the locker room. Here is what he had to say:

“I didn’t say anything about last season until Week 17,” Holmes added. “It hurt to play seven games and only have (22) catches, but you do live and you learn. Honestly, L.T., I wouldn’t say he’s wrong, but I don’t think it would be right if I had anything to say come Week 7 and I only have 20 catches again. Just play it out like the way it played it out last year.”

To me, the correct answer would be to say that he was right last year, he was a problem, but he won’t be this year. He should say that he doesn’t care if he catches 10 balls as long as the Jets win the Super Bowl. But no, instead he talks about how hard it is for him not to receive passes.

Turn the page and we’ll take a look at his more recent interview.

Recently, in discussing the now well-known end of 2011, Santonio talked about how he was the scapegoat for last year’s problems:

“It was the end, it was playoffs on the line, and your best receiver doesn’t get but two passes thrown his way in 60 minutes of football,” Holmes told ESPN 98.7. “That’s just hard to understand and to cope with when you want everything just as bad as everybody else does, and it just doesn’t even happen. And nobody has the answers for it, but ‘the scapegoat’ is the answer, and that’s what happened.”

No Santonio, you were getting the blame because you were fighting with your teammates on the field. You earned everything anyone said about you. Correct, the playoffs were on the line, your job was to do whatever was asked of you, in order to help the Jets win the game. Your job was not to start complaining because you didn’t catch enough passes to serve your large ego. That’s why you were blamed for the problems. Clearly the quote above means you don’t get it. This is not the way to get past it.

He later admitted being part of the problem, sort of:

“Was me, it was me,” Holmes said, when asked what was at the heart of his problems last season. “Not answering those questions in that manner. Not saying the things that were asked of me to say, and just learning how to hold my tongue and to be more critical of myself instead of others.”

Turn the page for my reaction.

This was not an admission. This was him saying what he was supposed to say, so he sounded good. A decent admission would have been him admitting to not being a good teammate, nor representing the “C” he had on his jersey. The appropriate reaction would have been to say that it was all on him, and that he was wrong. Not saying that he didn’t “say the things that were asked of me to say”. That is basically saying, “Yeah I was a problem because I didn’t follow the company line”.

To be a leader, you have to act like a leader in all phases.

Santonio is stepping up on the field and being a leader. If the Jets are winning, all will be forgotten.

If not, we could have a rerun of last year, and the evidence is in those comments that Holmes made.

With the media, Santonio needs to be more careful with what he says. But yet, he goes on.

He just doesn’t get it.