Jets to the MAX

I said to my nephew Pete as we were driving to Gillette on a beautiful New Year's Day morning... "If I could choose between the Pats winning today and getting the top seed and the Jets making the playoffs, or the Pats losing and getting the second seed and the Jets losing and not making the playoffs... I would chose the Pats losing,"

That's what you call being an irrational sports fan. Rooting more against another team than you are rooting for your own team. But I knew the pleasure I would get this week from the completion of the Jets implosion. Or at least I thought I knew. Turns out I way underestimated just how much fun it would be.

It actually started before the game even ended. Team "captain" Santonio Holmes, a malcontent his entire career, got into an argument in the huddle with teammates who had finally had enough of his act. In the huddle! In the fourth quarter of a game the Jets had to have. With everything on the line. Holmes was benched for the final few minutes. He didn't have a catch in the game. The Jets wilted in the Miami heat and lost 19-17. No playoffs. No Super Bowl.

And then the fun really began. First Ladianian Tomlinson chimed in on the Holmes argument and his captain's body language. "I'll tell you what," LT said. "It's tough for guys to follow a captain that kind of behaves in that manner. You're a captain, guys looking to you. You've got to lead by example. You've got to play your tail off until the last play." This from LT. The "leader" of the Chargers who left the AFC title game against the Pats a few years ago and sat sulking on the bench, buried under the hood of his giant winter coat, as his team's championship dreams faded yet again.

Give L.T. credit for facing the media. His teammate Bart Scott just flipped off the reporters, but not before saying "All I know is I have a $4 million guaranteed contract next year." The Jets say that isn't actually true.

Mt. Ryan then got his chance to speak and, once again, came off looking mostly like a buffoon. He talked about how he was not sorry that he spent more time predicting his team would win the Super Bowl and talking smack about the opponents than he did making sure his team was ready to play. He pretty much predicted -- again -- that the Jets would win it all next year. Eventually the questions turned to the Holmes argument in the huddle and his benching.

Here's what the Super Bowl champion coach had to say... "I looked out there and was wondering why he wasn't out there. I did not bench Santonio." Hmmm... Can you imagine Bill Belichick saying that? Maybe Ryan should take a few press conference lessons from him.

Things really got entertaining later in the week when the team's injured, rookie, fourth-string quarterback decided he too should talk. That's what Rex Ryan's players do. They talk. A lot. Greg McElroy (I googled him. He actually does play for the Jets) had this to say about his first year in the NFL...  "This place is a zoo. It's the first time I've ever been around extremely selfish individuals. There were people within our locker room that didn't care whether we won or lost as long as they really had a good game individually. It's going to take a lot to kind of come together next year."

Ryan did a little post-mortem during the week and summed it up very well..."Normally, I'm a guy that really has the pulse of the team," he said humbly. "I don't think I had the pulse of the team the way I've done in the past."

So many great quotes from a great collapse. But my favorite came from an unexpected source... the director of the Jets very unfortunate Pepsi MAX commercial that's been playing the past week or so. (Wonder how the execs at Pepsi have felt watching the Jets collapse knowing they were the focus of their new ad campaign?) The director describes working with Ryan and the Jets... "They're the best group of people I've ever worked with. Ryan has put together a fabulous team. The guys are harmonious."

I guess he should stick to making commercials and not judging team talent and chemistry.

Just as Ryan and the Jets should have stuck to studying game film and practicing instead of opening their mouths and making commercials.