Nick Mangold admits Jets release ‘caught me off guard’
After 11 years as a New York Jets stalwart, center Nick Mangold was released by the New York Jets, and it came as a shock to him.
Mangold admitted that the move to make him a salary cap casualty without even trying to renegotiate his contract was unexpected.
“I was hoping there was going to be a negotiation of some sort to get something worked out,” Mangold told Steve Serby of the New York Post. “But when you’re told, ‘Hey, we’re cutting you, and good luck’ that really caught me off guard.”
Mangold conceded that he wanted to retire a Jet, and being released was heartbreaking for him.
“Yeah,” he said. “There’s a lot of people in that organization, not just players, that have affected my life and been a part of my life. But you have your equipment staff, your training staff, coaches that have come through, front office staff, marketing, ticketing, the kitchen staff, the operations … There’s a whole bunch of people in that building who have been around for a long time, that it’s difficult that I’m not being able to have a proper goodbye and say goodbye to those people at the office ’cause now I’m a free agent. I’ll have to call to be able to go over to the facility. I don’t think my code’s going to work anymore.”
Mangold has taken the release fairly well publicly, sharing the amusing place he found out about it. Still, it’s understandable that he’s struggling with being cut by the only team he’s ever known.
