nice article in the post today: http://nypost.com/2014/01/21/former-jets-wish-coach-carroll-had-been-given-another-season/
Amazing. Simply amazing that a man so passive, totally and utterly clueless as the owner of a professional sports franchise, could have been so driven, ruthless and successful in the business world. Leon Hess is what happened. If not THE worst owner in the history of professional sports, he's in the top 5.
I laugh when people complain about Woody and forget what it was like under hess. The positive about Leon was he didn't gouge fans, we never even paid for preseason games(season ticket holders) until his last season but the negative was he had no clue how to build a winning football team. Woody gouges us but at least we are usually competitive.
I am not even talking about that, everyone charges for preseason but a new Stadium wasn't needed, they built that awful stadium, gave fans PSLs and outrageous ticket prices. I know they have some $50 seats in the upper deck but that was temporary while we weren't expected to be very good and b/c they couldn't sell those seats. I started going to every game in 1990. It was $22.50 per ticket(in lower level) w/ no preseason. Total: $185 per ticket for the season 1997 I believe it was $30/ticket w/ no preseason. reasonable increase. total $240 per ticket 1998 it went up to $40 per ticket plus preseason. Total $400- almost doubled in one year. Woody took over in 2000, I believe by 2001 it was $70/ticket.
I was in Guam in the Navy for that season. I remember waking up at 3:00 am I believe to watch the infamous spike game, but had to leave at 24-13 I believe for PT in the morning only to return to my barracks just in time for that play. I was doing maintenance at a department that had a TV and the Vikings game on at around 9 am it seemed, so if my memory is correct it must have been a night game. those are the games that I recall the most, but I was very optimistic about the team going into the season, during the season and optimistic about the next season when it ended. the dread I felt when Carrol was fired and Kotite hired. I've never hated to be so right in my entire life. it wasn't just a disastrous move, it was a painfully obvious one.
Looking back, as painful as it was it did set us up for future success b/c if we didn't hit rock bottom under Kotite then we keep the yo-yo act up of 8-8 one year, 4-12 the next but when we won 4 games in 2 seasons it forced leon to make a big move which brought us BP and changed the franchise. He never finished the job and we still haven't seen a SB but we have seen 3 title game apps since then and been a fairly consistent playoff team which was much better than 1987-1996.
he could have, we made the playoffs 4 times in the 80s and even after we made the championship game tickets only went up $10.
You'd be surprised by how many apathetic clueless owners there are in the world of pro sports that are billionaires. Wealth doesn't equal savvy ownership.
i was in the navy barracks at n.a.s. jacksonville watching that infamous game. lot of fin fans in there with me. i wanted to crawlin a hole when tht pass was completed. one of the worst moments as a jet fan. how long did you serve?
I was always a Carroll Supporter. Got a bunch of shit for it when he was here and even more when he was in NE. Carroll as a DC was amazing IMO... this is back when I used to record every game on VHS and rewatch them all week...lol I remember seeing some things he tried on defense that I thought were unorthodox which is why I liked him... Now the same for Rex. I just appreciate the OTB Thinkers.
I understand the team collapsed at the end, but at the time I was never so pissed off at a team decision as a Jet fan before when that happened. I didn't like the Coslet hire, I wanted Walton gone for a while - but this really irked me. I was driving home from a funeral in Western NJ when I heard the news on the radio. I almost drove off the road. I mean any fan with any knowledge knew Kotite's Eagles crashed and collapsed even worse than the Jets, so how could the team losing 5 straight be the reason if that is what you replaced him with.
little under four years. to keep this on topic somewhat, waking up and watching football at 3:00 am with friends and going for morning runs and chatting about the games is one of my favorite memories of the Navy.
true. midway through his second year I was excited about the failure because we had the number one pick looming and the rumors of Bill Parcells saving the day.
Classic Jets - The Patriots fire Pete Carroll and replace him with Belichik. The Jets fire Pete Carroll and replace him with Kotite. Holy shit...
Carroll was an excellent DC for the Jets. I liked him too, but he was too young and immature and would never have succeeded as the Jets coach. He wouldn't have been Kotite bad, but the team would have been bad, mediocre. He just had no discipline and was worse than Rex about wanting to be liked and one of the guys. I'm really happy for him now. Seattle is blessed to have him. As long as he stays there, I think they'll have a very good, if not great team.
Thanks for your service to our country. Sorry that your time in the service couldn't have been blessed with better Jets football.
I could be wrong on this but going back to his days with the Eagles I believe Kotite lost 36 of the last 40 games he coached. Some pathetic number like that. I think he lost like 6 or 7 in a row in Philly to end his tenure there and went 4-28 in his 2 years here.
