John Idzik on the Release of Dimitri Patterson

Jul 24, 2014; Cortland, NY, USA; New York Jets general manager John Idzik looks on during training camp at SUNY Cortland. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

The Dimitri Patterson situation came to a grinding halt recently, with Patterson‘s release. Patterson was missing, suspended, not suspended, and released. It definitely seems as if the Jets were undecided on how to punish the player for his missing the game. Did something change Idzik’s opinion that earned Patterson’s release? Here is John Idzik on that very topic:

I don’t know that anything changed. I think it really was taking that time to kind of go through all the facts, and by that I mean the perspectives from Dimitri. We hadn’t heard from him. So we had an opportunity to sit down with him, Rex and I did, and I had follow-up conversations with him just to really accurately ascertain what went on. And then ultimately, does it fit for the team? We will always operate by one of our primary tenets – the team comes first in everything we do. I think, in the end, we felt like we did what is best for the New York Jets in releasing him.

Did Patterson’s public statements cause his undoing?

Well, we don’t operate too much on statements. I prefer direct communication. And that way if something is quoted or something is said, especially in this information age where things can fly out pretty quickly or they’re segmented, you always like to hear it directly from, in this case, the player. That’s what we did. We heard him out and he heard us out and then we acted how we thought it was appropriate given the circumstances. I don’t put too much weight on statements. I’d rather hear the statement directly from the player. And then if he has to explain what he meant by what was printed or what was quoted, then we’ll give him the opportunity to do that.

I said it yesterday, goodbye Dimitri Patterson. We hardly knew you.