Just like to make a few points about this whole Leon deal and the trading of the other so called leaders in the locker room. First of all, each and every one of those guys were solid players and excellent people who the Jets were proud to have in Green and White. Yet, each and everyone are no longer Jets for solid well thought out reasons. Will those reasons make it work better as a team team in the coming season, will Tanny and Rex be Hero's or Goats when all is said and done, only the Jets play during the season will be the final judge of it all. Leon is a class act right to the end, and you have to love the guy for it. An yes you have to give some respect for the support his wife has shown him. Yet, in many ways, his wife is at the root of all the has happened to LW. She got involved in a business decision with out truely knowing the business. She connected her husband up with a smooth talking, promise you the world, shark of and agent , who is reviled by NFL teams. An agent who appears to be as uninformed about the business of the NFL has is LW wife. Leon claims he wanted to be a Jets, and I believe him. The Jets wanted him to be a Jet and I believe them. I know they love this guy, because we loved him as well. Yet, the voices of reason disappeared when LW wife and Idiot Alvin came in to the business picture. I honestly believe if Leon had another agent, he would have taken the Jets offer last year and been sitting in the cat birds seat right now. Yet, Idiot Alvin and LW's wife chose to start the games , not rehabbing with the Jets not being there for the support his team mates could offer during these tought times. Chosing not to attend the Vol mini camps, all of these things burned many bridges LW spent years to build. An in the end, LW will never get near the type of money the Jets were willing to offer. He (MAY) never be the players he once was, and with very lose ties to his new team, could be out on the street as soon as next season. I say that and use L Coles as an example of how easy it is to dump a player you have no ties to. As far as team chemistry goes, the best way to build team chemistry is by winning. There are more then enough guys in that locker room right now who have been with this team long enough to take over some of the void other feel was created by cutting ties with these four players. This is a business and every one of them knows it, players come and go that too is part of the business. If this team improves to say 12-4 or even 13 and 3, then everyone will forget and of this crap that is being talked about at this time. An this all goes back to the way Rex approaches every game, he and the Jets play. You play to win and you do what it takes to win. You keep your foot on the peddle and on your oppoents throat and don't let up until the gun sounds.... This is not your Same Old Jets!!!!!!!!!!!!!
to avoid a drop off in team chemistry, rex should 'shun' any player to be cut the following season. no player, fan, or assistant coach should be allowed to speak to them and they should not be allowed to speak in the locker room. Ghost? Shunned. BT? Shunned. Woody? Shunned. These players are now dead to us and can never again be mentioned.
Leon said pretty much the same thing in this article: http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yorkjets/post/_/id/315/leon-players-concerned-about-team-chemistry Former Jets running back Leon Washington, in his first New York-area interview since his trade to the Seahawks, didn’t take any parting shots at his old team. But he did give credence to a growing concern around the Jets _ team chemistry. “I’ve got a bunch of friends I talk to, a bunch of guys, and they’re excited about the new players they have coming in, but they do have questions about how well they will gel with the new people in the locker room,” Washington said Tuesday in an interview with WFAN. “Those guys are professionals and I’m sure they’ll handle it, but at the same time, it takes continuity and it takes time to build relationships.” The front office has unloaded several team leaders, including Washington, Alan Faneca and Thomas Jones. The Washington-Faneca bombshells left some returning players wondering if the organization, in its quest for a Super Bowl, had too much tampering with team chemistry. Washington, coming off a major leg injury, became expendable when the Jets traded up in the fourth round to select USC running back Joe McKnight. A short time later, they traded Washington and a seventh-round pick to the Seahawks for a fifth-rounder (Kentucky fullback John Conner). Washington said he “definitely wanted to stay” with the Jets. Being traded, he said, “adds fuel to my motivation.” Asked if he’s bitter toward the Jets, he replied, “I’d like to say, no, not at all, but it’s only natural for me to feel that way. If I didn’t feel that way, it would mean I didn’t have any feelings toward the Jets. Honestly, I’m kind of upset that I’m not going to be a Jet this year. But I’m looking forward to the opportunity I have in Seattle.” He also was asked about his wife’s post-trade comment on his Twitter page. When the trade went down, she tweeted, “Good Luck paying the 20 people due contracts @ the end of the season. Lol. Thank You Jesus for getting us out of here." “I have to agree with my wife, that’s my wife,” Washington said. “I didn’t like when she made that comment, but she cares so much about her husband, she cares so much about Leon. I told her, ‘You have to understand, it’s a business.’ I’m not the only one who feels this way. Look at Alan Faneca. Look at Thomas Jones.” It’s a business, all right, but the Jets are doing a lot more business than other teams.
I find it amazing that people are actually worrying about this in April. Sanchez, Scott, Greene, and Leonhard weren't even on the team before last year, and the coach was also brand new - doesn't that mean that they should have had problems with team chemistry during the season? As you say, this is what training camp is for. Of course, most of the people worrying about this are in the media, and it is a symptom of what is wrong with sports nowadays that we even know it. In the past, no one would be paying any attention to the NFL until July, so these supposed concerns would be irrelevant.
I'll weigh in one time on this Leon thing. The Leon Washington tale is a tragic story. Okay, not as tragic as Dennis Byrd, but I can't remember another player on this team who began with such electricity and spark and totally crashed and burned as badly as this young man. When Tannenbaum said he was "inspiring," he was exactly that. He grew up in the shadows of the stadium in Jacksonville and was going nowhere fast. He dropped out of high school and was working the hood. Some cops were on patrol one day looking to get some of the kids off the street, so they were looking for a RB who could run real good to be a part of their PAL football team. When they stopped a kid on the street and asked him who in the neighborhood can run with a football real good, the kids all said, "You want Leon." So the cops went after Leon and got him to join the PAL league. Then one of them talked him into going back to high school and spoke to the football coach to get him on the team. The rest is history, but this kid comes from nothing, believe me. And now he is where he is. He had a chance to make the big bucks and I guess we'll never know who TF gave him the advice to stand firm and play chickie with the Jets... maybe it was his agent, maybe his wife... who knows. But it is a real shame that he didn't get some really large paychecks. He'll have the rest of his life to look back on that decision, I'm sure. i know one thing. Leon's a real nice guy. I talked to him several times at TC over at Hofstra. One time, he came over by the fence and sat down with his back to the fence and nobody even knew who he was. But I knew, so I just started talking to him quietly from behind, telling him how much we loved watching him run and wishing his good luck, and he answered and thanked me. Pretty soon, somebody said to me, "Hey, who is that anyway?" I told him it's Leon Washington, and then right away people started going, "Holy shit! Hey Leon, can I have your autograph?" He said he'd be back after practice, so I went over to the tent and bought a ball, but at the end of practice he was ready to come over to the fence and Eric Mangini called him over and started talking to him. Then Mangini started walking off the field and Leon was like, "Okay, I'd better walk with the coach if he wants to talk to me," so he never came back over that day and I missed out on his sig for my grandson. But I know he would have come over if Mangini had not collared him, he was a real nice guy. I hated for this to end this way and wish him the best of luck. Let's hope he reurns to his old form and gets himself the good, healthy contract he always deserved.
Wow, great story. I didn't know any of that about Leon. I'm pretty sure that his agent screwed him because I don't think a kid from the streets would be able to turn down millions like that.
While we're at it, let's all give a big fat "Thank You" to the sack of shit who made all of this possible:
Like Brenda Warner? What a peach. A psycho peach. I'm all for supporting someone you love, but not at the cost of submarining them - or their career - in the process.
I'm not going to quote the whole thing, but that was a hell of a post, 227. I agree, we all had high hopes and much love for Leon, which makes it all the more difficult to watch him go like this.
Alvin Keels should crash and burn as an agent. I can't imagine anyone going with this jerkoff after this. "Hey man, I think I'm goin' with Alvin Keels." "Dude, you know who he is? That was Leon Washington's agent, man. You crazy?"
What a brilliant idea! Nothing like ostracizing players in order to build/foster better team chemistry. And giving Gholston, Woody and Bryan Thomas the silent treatment throughout camp and the regular season is an utterly ingenious way of motivating them to play their hearts and guts out on the field as a way of expressing their love and gratitude toward their coach, fellow team mates and the fans. I can think of no better way of extracting the very best out of people other than by treating them like invisible, dead pieces of shit as you propose. The best part of your amazingly clever idea is that it fits perfectly with Rex's philosophy of team first, players and coaches believing in and trusting each other, every player being fully accountable to each other on and off the field and having each others' back in the true sense and spirit of one for all and all for one. Are you a professional management consultant or something? Because if not, you should be. Either that or a career as a sports psychologist or maybe even as a motivational speaker could reap you millions of dollars a year in income.
I was going to suggest he was kidding, but then I looked at who posted that. I'm not so sure now that he wasn't serious...
Let's be honest here. The Jets dodged a bullet. If the Jets signed Washington to a big contract last year , the Jets would have been on the hook for the guaranteed money for a running back with a serious leg injury. Yes he was electric. Yes he was a good guy. But in the end, he turned out to be too selfish and/or too trusting of his agent and it cost him big time. His decision to blow off the team for OTAs and criticize the contract he was offered was the handwriting on the wall that he did not want to be here. He is not an every down back is not worth the money he wanted. I would rather have him gone now with his bum wheel then have him be a Jet and owed big time money knowing that the odds are he will never ever be close to the same player again.
