John Idzik: “I Deal With Reality”

New Jets’ General Manager John Idzik is learning quickly how to deal with the New York media.

There are a lot of perceptions that follow around the New York Jets. We have heard them before, the “circus” perception, the idea that nobody wanted to take this general manager job. Remember? One of the mainstream media members said that Woody Johnson “…couldn’t give the job away.” Real, or contrived, there are a lot of ideas, or perceptions, that follow this football team around.

New GM John Idzik met with the media last week, and to no surprise, had to deal with questions about the perceptions. Idzik, to his credit, gave the mainstream media great answers talking about this. Take a look at what he had to say about the idea that nobody wanted the GM job:

Everyone is going to have their opinions and I don’t deal with much in perception to be honest. I deal with reality. The reality here is I think this is one of the most fabulous football infrastructures anyone can ask for. For one, we have some of the most fervent, passionate fans in the National Football League. I’ve experienced what an advantage that can be in Seattle, Tampa (Bay) and Arizona. I feel that here. We have a state-of-the-art stadium to play in. We have a state-of-the-art facility. The people in this building are tremendous. That’s reality to me. The more I got to know about the people here, the fans here, the environment here, the facilities, I think the football infrastructure is second to none. My personal opinion is, (it is) one of the best opportunities that you could have.

He also was asked if he was aware of the negative perception around the team:

No, I don’t think I ever got the perception. Again, there seems to be a lot of misperceptions. I had a brief breakfast with the entire building. The entire building showed up to shake my hand. That’s pretty impressive that people go out of their way to introduce themselves to me and make me feel at home. When I sense that, I don’t look at it as repair. I look at it as fostering what we have here. We have a good group of people here. They’re good at what they do and it’s up to me and everybody here to join together. That’s the sense I get. I don’t sense dysfunction or anything like that.

Too much time with this team is spent on what the “perceptions” are. When you deal in perceptions, you are not dealing with what is actually going on. Kudos to John Idzik for really caring one way or the other what the perceptions are, and worrying about what actually IS.

I leave you with what Idzik had to say about dealing with the “perception” that he is a cap guy:

I know this is probably one of the most resourceful groups of journalists in the world, so if you want to answer perceptions, I would ask you just to go back to the numerous people that I’ve worked alongside in my NFL career. They can own up to that. As far as evaluations, football is at the root of who I am. I’ve been a football guy, so to speak. I don’t know exactly what that means, but (I’ve been in football) since I was a six-year-old. Once I got into the league, I got into the league purely as a scout. That’s always been in the background of what I do. Again, if there are any perceptions or any questions, there are plenty of resources out there to ask the people that I’ve worked with.

Translation: “If you want to know about me, find out.”

Take that, mainstream media! Atta boy John!