Santonio Holmes: The Jets Should Have Seen This Coming

Santonio Holmes' Attitude Should Have Been Obvious. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Look at him everyone, there he is. Captain Santonio Holmes. A former Super Bowl MVP that has become the biggest grump on the Jets by a wide margin. He got his money, and now all he looks out for is himself. It seems as if this was a change in attitude from 2010-2011, but if you look at his checkered past, the Jets could, and should, have really seen this coming.

A player’s character is everything, and when you take a look at Santonio’s background, you can tell he has character flaws.

Santonio Holmes was arrested twice in 2006, once for disorderly conduct(charges dropped), and once for domestic violence and assault. Again the charges were dropped eventually, although the prosecutors wanted to proceeed without a complaining witness.

In 2008, Holmes was again arrested, this time for possession of marijuana, causing Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to bench Holmes for one game.

By now it’s pretty obvious that Santonio Holmes has no ability to consistently behave himself off the field.

In 2010, a woman sued Holmes over an incident at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, when she alleged that Holmes threw a glass at her. After the incident, someone commented on the incident via Twitter, and Holmes responded by saying “kill urself”, and then making a reference to marijuana. Santonio claimed his account was hacked, and it wasn’t him commenting.

Yeah, right.

Santonio Holmes was soon traded to the Jets for a fifth round draft pick. We will go back to this in just a few minutes. Just before the trade, Holmes was suspended by the NFL for the first 4 games of the 2010 NFL season for violating the terms of the league’s substance abuse policy.

Soon after, Holmes had an incident on an airplane, where he allegedly wouldn’t follow directions regarding turning off his ipod during the flight. He spoke to officers after the flight, and no charges were filed, but take a look at this history. Whether the issues are small or insignificant, this is not the picture of a guy that behaves himself.

However, the Jets rewarded this model citizen with a $50 million contract.

How did Holmes reward the Jets generosity? With his attitude last year that ended in his benching, and his attitude so far this offeason. Santonio has made clear, despite what Woody Johnson says, that all he cares about himself.

The Jets should have seen this coming. First of all, his history we have outlined above should have told the Jets that they were not dealing with a wonderful individual. But, they bring him in anyway. And, think about how they brought him in. This guy was a Super Bowl MVP, and Ben Rothlisberger’s main target, and all he was worth was a 5th round draft pick? Seriously? That didn’t tell the Jets something about what they were getting? Mind boggling.

Bottom line is this, the Jets think they can bring anyone into their “team” concept. They think anyone will just buy in. They should have known what they were getting, and known this would happen.

They should have seen this coming. They didn’t, or didn’t care. Now they have a catastrophe that could bring down the whole team.