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New York Jets owner Woody Johnson — who reportedly sources advise from his teenage sons and their social media-driven opinions — is currently overseeing the longest playoff drought in American professional sports, as Gang Green hasn’t qualified for the NFL’s postseason in 14 years and counting.
Speaking to the media after the Jets’ season-ending win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Woody Johnson reminded everyone of what a misguided and hapless NFL owner he is, as his first thought when asked about the Jets’ 2024 season was to mention the number of nationally televised games they played in.
The Jets played on national TV against the 49ers in Week 1, Patriots in Week 3, Bills in Week 6, Steelers in Week 7, and the Texans in Week 9. They were supposed to take on the Colts for Sunday Night Football in Week 11, but that game was flexed out of the slot because both teams were average-to-below average.
“Well, you know, everybody thought — not just me [unintelligible] — but all the networks that are paying millions of dollars, they put us in five, six primetime. So everybody thought this was going to be unbelievable. From that standpoint, yeah, we didn’t live up to that early opinion virtually everybody,” Johnson said.
“But we ended up well because, I don’t care about anything else, but a win at the end was good. So we beat them [the Dolphins] today, we didn’t give up, everybody showed up, we did some really nice things.”
Woody Johnson talks about the Jets’ 2024 season: pic.twitter.com/NdoFa2AbW9
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) January 6, 2025
Johnson’s take about nationally televised games highlights a fundamental misunderstanding of how the league works, as national TV games are not a direct indicator of talent, but drama. Yes, many pundits thought the team would be better than they were — but that’s not what the TV networks were buying. The TV networks were buying the Aaron Rodgers Carnival that would role into town.
Not only did the Jets fail to break their playoff drought but they’ve also been forced to clear house with the head coach and general manager being fired in-season. Their quarterback Aaron Rodgers will likely be next, with reports seemingly indicating that whether he decides to retire or not, the Jets will be moving on from the future Hall of Famer.