New York Jets: Failed ‘Tim Tebow Experiment’ has unforeseen consequences

The New York Jets are my team, for better or for worse, they are my guys. But it seems as though every season, this team tries its hardest to make it increasingly hard for their fans to wear Jets gear in public.

For some reason, this organization thought that bringing in the most polarizing athlete into the biggest media market in the country was a good idea. The masterminds in the Jets front office were the only people who thought that. The rest of us, who live in reality, speculated that the negative consequences would far outweigh the positive ones. It is very unfortunate how right we were and continue to be.

As bad as we thought it was going to be, I don’t think anyone anticipated just how badly things would go. Obviously, things have been going very, very badly—on and off the field.

Here is a list, in no particular order, of some unforeseen consequences to this failed experiment.

Too Much Focus on the Quarterback, Not Enough Elsewhere

The Jets are a broken team. There are many deficiencies. It seems like the only thing that people were focused on was the quarterback position when attention should have been spent elsewhere. Just to name a few other disastrous areas: the special teams unit, the pass rush, the rushing defense, the pass protection, the wide receiver corps and the running game. In my opinion, these issues altogether are much more detrimental to the team than having an inconsistent quarterback.

Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan paid far too much attention to dealing with the media and talking about a quarterback controversy when they should have been trying to fill holes from the free-agent market.

Future Signings

The Jets have treated Tim Tebow appallingly. He says all the right, politically correct things in interviews. Meanwhile, he would have every right to go off and complain about how he’s been treated this season.

Now, the Jets have a lot of issues and will need to acquire a lot of players this offseason in order to fix those issues. They can’t get everything done during the draft. They need to resort to trades and the free-agent market.

What worries me is that players will remember the circus that is the New York Jets—and they will stay away from this team. If a player could choose to go to a team that doesn’t, say release its players while they’re doing charity work (true story, happened to Aaron Maybin), that player will probably choose that team over the Jets.

Who would want to work with a sea of lunatics? Who would want to be a part of a circus?

Distractions from the Constant Media Attention

Unfortunately, the media in this country is focused on sensationalism rather than reporting the news. When you bring a player with a cult-like following—that the media is obsessed with—into the biggest media market in the country, bad things do happen. Bad things have happened. From beat writers allegedly making up players’ quotes, to sources straight-up lying about situations, this season has been a disaster in the media department.

It’s a distraction, an unnecessary distraction that hurts the team.

And it hurts the players. These guys are human beings, just like everyone else. They say that they don’t pay attention to what people say in the media, but I don’t buy that. The Jets are ubiquitous and there is no escaping it. Believe me; I’ve tried very hard in the past to not have to hear about the Jets. It’s impossible to go even 24 hours.

It’s not easy to live under a microscope and that is what these players have had to do.

General Distrust of the Organization

I learned a long time ago to take everything the Jets say with a grain of salt. Some of the information that comes out of any football team is going to be slightly skewed out of the desire to not give opponents any information.

But this team, this season, wow! The dishonesty has reached new levels.

When we hear that Tim Tebow has this mysterious rib injury that was so bad that he couldn’t play, yet he was activated and Greg McElroy wasn’t? Tebow is saying in interviews that he feels fine, but Rex Ryan is being really dramatic about it. He’s acting like he cares, saying things like if Tebow was his son, he wouldn’t let him play. It makes you wonder if something nefarious is going down behind the scenes.

I love my team, but I do not trust this organization. A lot of Jets fans that I know feel the exact same way. It seems as though getting blood from a stone is an easier task than getting the truth out of this organization. It’s exhausting.

After All is Said and Done

It seems crystal clear that Tim Tebow was Woody Johnson’s brainchild. This everything-that’s-wrong-with-America, disgustingly greedy man wanted to sell merchandise and sell tickets. He knew that Tebow would do just that. I understand wanting to sell tickets so that games don’t get blacked-out, but signing specific players isn’t the best way to sell tickets. There are other ways.

You know what else puts butts in seats, Mr. Johnson? Hope. But this organization doesn’t have any hope—which is yet another consequence of the failed Tim Tebow experiment.

Thank you very much for making my beloved team the butt of every joke. Thank you very much for making my team into a hopeless wound.

Angie Kozak is the New York Jets writer for The Penalty Flag. Angie has had NY Jets season ticket for 13 straight seasons and counting. She graduated from Penn State University in 2010 with a degree in Communications. Although a lifelong diehard Jet fan, Angie can be outspokenly critical of her beloved Jets. Contact her on Twitter @Angie_Kozak.