An Odd Black Monday for the New York Jets

Dec 30, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan before the game against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

Black Monday was an interesting day, wasn’t it? 7 coaches were given the axe, nearly a quarter of the league. It was not a pretty New Year’s Eve around the NFL for a lot of coaches. The Jets were part of the carousel, but not the head coaching one, the general manager. The long awaited move finally happened, Mike Tannenbaum was relieved of his duties as Jets’ GM. He was fired, but per Woody Johnson, Rex Ryan was not. Rex Ryan has the “passion” to lead this team to where they want to go.

Then, we see how the Jets can’t even handle the day of a firing in a normal way. First, we find out that Rex Ryan’s end of the year press conference is cancelled, due to an “organizational decision”. Odd, right? Why not let him talk, since his is going to be brough back to town anyway? Why not let him summarize the season, put a period on it, and speak on behalf of the franchise? But, they didn’t. Instead, the only words we heard were from the players. Why note it? Because the front office typically sends the season off on it’s way. Normally it’s the coach and the GM, but obviously with Tannenbaum fired, it wasn’t going to be the GM. But Rex could speak for the team, send everybody off, and nobody would have thought anything of it. Instead, the players were the final voice. It was just odd.

Then, there was the staff meeting at 1 PM. Woody Johnson was in attendance, although he wasn’t expected to be around the facility until later in the week. Word around the building was that he wasn’t supposed to be around until Thursday, but he was there. The other hammer was expected to drop, on namely Tony Sparano and Matt Cavanaugh. He met with the whole staff, and everyone walked out with their jobs. Even Matt Cavanaugh. On one hand, it makes sense to keep the coaches waiting on the new GM, but on the other hand, why? There have already been leaks that the Jets want a new offensive coordinator, I am sure Tony Sparano is aware of it. Why not just just put the guy out of his misery, and let him start looking for a new job? Same for Cavanaugh. Why? What’s the point? Everybody knows they want these two guys out. Just do it already.

They also had Rex Ryan cancel his regular weekly radio spot on ESPN radio as well. See, the day was just handled wrong. If Rex is staying, let him go about his business.

An odd Black Monday. Only the Jets