Tag Archives: New York Jets

When you play the Jets, you feel it for a while after the game is over. Despite the flippancy of the headline, this story is rather serious. If you’ll recall, early in the 4th quarter during Sunday’s game, Chargers offensive lineman Kris Dielman suffered a dangerous-looking concussion.

From watching the game footage, it looked Dielman, while trying to push at the line during a Mike Tolbert run up the middle, slammed helmet-first into Calvin Pace. After the play was dead (and the Chargers had lost a yard), Dielman stumbled backwards around 15 yards before losing his footing and falling onto the field. Despite this, Dielman stayed in the game and didn’t undergo testing until after the game ended.

However, according to ESPN, Dielman suffered a grand mal seizure on the Chargers’ chartered flight back west. Dielman has yet to take the NFL’s concussion test or be cleared to play and will likely miss at least two games. According to head coach Norv Turner, the Chargers handled the situation exactly as they should have:

“Everything was handled extremely well,” Turner said. “All the proper precautions were taken. Kris was evaluated when we landed and all the tests were excellent. We’re fortunate, he’s fortunate and we’re moving on.”

The NFL doesn’t think so. According to vice president Bryan McCarthy, the NFL, along with the Chargers, their medical staff, and the NFLPA, is reviewing the response to the injury. Just another reminder of how dangerous football can be, even away from the ball.

Tagged concussions, New York Jets, san diego chargers |

The Green Bay Packers are arguably one of the best franchises in the history of football, and Business Week points out that this may be partly due to their unorthodox ownership structure:

When you talk to Packer management, you start to realize that success is a tribute to the careful, constant maintenance of two things: the product on the field and the community’s warm feelings about that product. “It starts with football,” says Murphy. “We structure the organization in a way that we can be successful on the field. But a big part of it is also remembering that this team has a special place in this community. We’re owned by this community. We can’t be perceived as gouging the fans.”

The Packers must constantly walk that fine line between profitability and community. Every other NFL franchise is controlled or entirely owned by one majority shareholder, and NFL rules prohibit otherwise. (The Packers’ ownership structure predates current NFL rules.) Ticket prices, concessions, parking, stadium naming rights—all of that is dictated at most NFL stadiums by whatever the owner feels the market will bear, and every additional dollar is profit into the owner’s pockets.

The Packers don’t operate like that. Take ticket prices: Even after a 9 percent bump this Super Bowl championship year, the highest-priced ticket is $83, lower than all but two other franchises. In contrast to other NFL venues and their garish, wraparound ad signage, Lambeau is as austere as a high school football stadium. The only ads you see are on the scoreboard; the rest of the stadium has intentionally been maintained so that the vista a fan experiences today is similar to what he would have seen in the ’60s.

Matt Yglesias offers his thoughts:

Why shouldn’t more communities be able to purchase NFL franchises and operate them for the broadly conceived good of a fanbase? It actually seems to me that something along these broad ownership lines is the most logical capital structure for most pro sports teams. You could imagine something like a team being owned by a group of several thousand season ticket holders who’d elect a board amongst themselves and hire a professional manager. As fans, their priority would be to put a winning team on the field. Business considerations would of course be an important element of that—you need revenue to hire players and coaches—but the structure of the “business” would resemble the basic relationship involved in being a season ticket holder. You’re putting money on the line because you can afford it and because you love to root for the team.

Sports fandom is a strange thing. We invest an incredible amount of psychic energy and time into rooting for our team, but have no real influence on the internal operations beyond our ability to purchase or not purchase tickets and comment on blogs and radio shows.

Let’s change that! Not that I have any problem with the Jets current ownership (Schottenheimer issues aside), but let’s buy the Jets! Why not?

Tagged green bay packers, humor, New York Jets, sports ownership |

There is now a barometer to gauge the going rates for premier inside linebackers in 2011. Carolina signed Jon Beason—a three-time Pro Bowl and two-time All-Pro inside linebacker—to a monster five-year, $50M extension with $25M guaranteed.

Although David Harris has yet to receive similar acknowledgment for his production, the Jets do feel very strongly about Hitman Harris and his abilities. If Beason’s deal tops the market value, how far off will Harris’ numbers be? Will he meet or exceed Bart Scott’s six-year, $48M contract in 2009?

EDIT BY BENT: One huge difference here is the fact that Beason’s rookie deal had not yet expired. With one year left at $1.4m that makes the contract worth $51.4m over six years, an average rate of $8.5m, which puts Harris’ value just below that, where we figured it was all along.

Tagged Bart Scott, david harris, Jon Beason, New York Jets |

Our friends over at GGN took some time to investiagte CB Dwight Lowery’s role on defense in 2010 now that AlCROtraz and Wilsooooonnnnn have arrived.

[Potential X-Factor: Dwight Lowery]

Tagged Antonio Cromartie, Dennis Thurman, Dwight Lowery, Kyle Wilson, New York Jets |

[Don Banks' pre-Training Camp Power Rankings]

Tagged Don Banks, Mark Sanchez, New York Jets, Power Rankings |

The Star-Ledger’s Manish Mehta said after the draft, his twitter account was flooded with stats, skills and even a hash-tag from fans to show their desire for Stony Brook’s all-time leading rusher Conte Cuttino to be invited to the Jets Mini-Camp. I’ve seen this kid play being a Hofstra-alum and have to say, although small (Leon Washington once was) he’s very versatile and can make all the moves. He also had a decent combine so he may merit a look-see.

But as to whether or not he gets invited remains to be seen:

A sampling of the support:

From @WVU_RedsNYJ_K_I: “#Cuttino2NYJets only seems logical. He’s got potential outta this world. Watch sum film. I don’t care who he is playin against”

From @D_Wyatt13: “Conte’s #s compared to RB’s at combine: 40 yard (4th best), Vertical (2nd best), Broad Jump (1st), 3 cone (1st) 20 yard (1st) #Cuttino2NYJets”

From @WG_SPA: “#Cuttino2NYJets Sign this dude Jets!!! He is better then Danny Woodhead!!”

Some people implored Jets players … From @PortugalBoy: “@Revis24 Hey Dude let Mr. T know that the #Jets fans want @Cuttino_01 to be given a chance. #Cuttino2NYJets”

@Gscott1847 cut right to the chase: “#Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #Cuttino2NYJets #NFL #NyJets”

“I truly feel blessed to know that I have so many people in my corner as I go about this journey to achieving my dream,” Cuttino said. “Taking my time to network through Facebook and Twitter and be close to fans and others definitely is paying off. Things can be done more effectively with hundreds of voices instead of one (me). I thank all that voice their opinion and support on Twitter and am deeply grateful for them all. I am really humbled by the outpouring.”

What do you guys think? Should he be invited? I’d say he’s worth a look. They gave Woodhead one last year.  To read the whole article, click here.

Tagged Conte Cuttino, Mike Tannenbaum, New York Jets |