The Jets have now had 5 really disappointing seasons in Woody Johnson' tenure as owner: 2000 - A 6-1 start turns into a 9-7 finish as the Jet's collapse down the stretch. Al Groh fired despite a 1 game improvement over the 1999 record. He wanted to stay. 2003 - 6-10 when Chad Pennington is hurt in training camp. Herm Edwards gets an obvious bye here and survives. 2005 - Jet's collapse to 4-12 after another early Pennington injury and at the end of the season Herm Edwards is gone of his own choice but it's clear Woody doesn't care and might have fired him anyway. 2007 - Jet's collapse to 4-12 in Eric Mangini's second season and he gets a controversial bye and a vote of confidence and a huge amount of talent added for 2008 to make good with. 2008- Jet's collapse to miss the playoffs after a strong first two thirds of the season. Eric Mangini fired the day after the season ends. So this is what we (and every coach who might come to the Jets at this point) now know about Woody: fail at your own risk. Bad results are going to get you fired. I'm more confident about the Jet's chances to win a Super Bowl in the next few years than at any time since Bill Parcells was hired. At worst I know I'm not going to have to watch coaches mess things up for more than a season or two before they are shown the door. The specter of Joe Walton no longer haunts my vision of the Jets.
Groh was told he was gone by Bill Parcells. He then took the job with Virginia. He wanted to stay as head coach of the Jets. He and Parcells have been very clear about this in interviews about the succession.
Woody is a bottom line kind of guy and recognizes that his investment in the Jets is best served if the Jets franchise becomes a winner. So, he and the fans have a great deal of common interest--who could ask for a better owner? Hess was nowhere near this guys passion and energy. Hess couldn't give a shit if the Jets were winning or losing as long as the stadium sold out. And he moved the Jets to jersey to get 10000 more seats per game. His memory is soiled. Woody's will be for good. edit: sorry, I forgot that Hess at the end of his days decided he would like the jets to win and started to try to build the franchise.
http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=26358&highlight=Groh Deja vu, all over again. I'm so glad that thread hadn't vanished because I didn't want to do the legwork all over again on it.
