The New York Jets insisted they intended to make Tim Tebow a major part of their offense this season after the acquired the quarterback via trade, but through nine games we have not seen it. New York is a disappointing 3-6, and their locker room is seemingly in disarray and getting worse by the day. You could easily make the argument that the Tebow trade was a PR stunt that has backfired badly, but Jets owner Woody Johnson does not want to hear that.
“This, I really want to clean up,” Johnson told the NY Post on Thursday. “You guys have been accusing me — this phony story — about me being more concerned with PSLs or cash or something else. My job 1, 2 and 3 is to win games. That’s why I got into football to begin with. It’s to win games. It’s not to sell PSLs or anything else. My job is to win games. That’s what my passion is. That’s what I want to do. That’s why I’m spending all this time in this organization. It’s not to sell PSLs or to sell hot dogs. It’s to win games. That’s my job. I take it very seriously.”
Johnson went on to say that no one in the organization is happy with a 3-6 record, including Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum. The Jets owner also agreed with Ryan that the anonymous Tebow bashers acted cowardly, but like Bart Scott he said he feels the negative publicity could bring the team closer together.
Shortly after the Jets traded for Tebow last winter, Johnson was quick to point out that the team had not seen a significant spike in merchandise sales. We hope that has since changed for the sake of the franchise, because other than merchandise sales I don’t see what Tebow has been able to bring to the table to this point.
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