Woody Johnson is the Jets’ real problem — and the worst owner in N.Y. sports history | Politi

The good news, Jets fans, is that the real problem with your favorite team might disappear in a few months, too. Woody Johnson served as ambassador to Great Britain in the first Trump administration, leading to speculation that he could resume that post during the second one.
London, however, doesn’t feel quite far enough for the Jets owner this time around. May we suggest New Zealand or Botswana? Elon Musk hasn’t colonized Mars yet, but that doesn’t mean humanity can’t send someone there early to, you know, get the lay of the land!
Johnson fired general manager Joe Douglas on Tuesday, and make no mistake, the GM earned his pink slip. The Jets had a 30-64 record under his guidance, with no winning seasons or playoff appearances. For every success like drafting Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson, he has a pile of failed free agents or wasted assets.
Douglas had to go, just like Robert Saleh had to go six weeks ago. The Jets went all in on Aaron Rodgers, who looks like a mummified version of his former greatness, and instead are careening toward the bottom of the NFL standings. It would seem impossible that this franchise could make fans long for the heady days of the Zach Wilson Era, but here we are.
Johnson should try to hire Mike Bradway, the senior director of player personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs and a former part of the Philadelphia Eagles college scouting department. He is also the son of former Jets GM Terry Bradway, who remains a well respected NFL personnel man in the area. The question is this: Why would anyone with career prospects take this job?
Why would anyone work for Johnson, whose franchise has a 171-227 record in his quarter century of ownership? The Jets are doomed to this endless cycle of futility because they have have problem that cannot be solved with a regime change or a promising young quarterback or anything like that.
They have the worst owner in New York sports history.
I fully realize there are no shortage of candidates for that distinction. Bruce Ratner bought the Nets, gutted a championship-caliber team and sold the franchise to a Russian oligarch. Fred Wilpon ran the big-market Mets for one dark decade as if they played in small-market Topeka. John Spano once purchased the Islanders without even a fraction of the actual money he needed and landed in federal prison. That’s hard to top!
Then, of course, there is the man widely considered the worst of the worst. James Dolan, though detestable for a dozen well-documented reasons, has at least overseen a period of calm and competence with the Knicks and the Rangers. He might not hang a banner at Madison Square Garden, but at least there’s some hope.
The Jets are where hope goes to die. Johnson is the reason for that, the (im)perfect combination of moron and meddler. His Jets will miss the playoffs for a 15th straight season this winter, a streak that shows no signs of ending, and are 1-5 since he fired Saleh and actually made this statement about this flawed roster:
“This is one of the most talented teams ever assembled by the New York Jets.”
Of course, that was utter nonsense. But if Johnson really believed that, then what could be the justification for firing the architect of — two more Johnson gems coming — this “unbelievable team” filled with “fabulous players on both sides of the ball?” He said all that about a 3-8 Jets team that does absolutely nothing well.
And, somehow, all of that is not the dumbest thing Johnson has said this season.
“Talladega Nights. You heard of that?” Johnson said during a scrum with reporters at the league meetings last month. “Remember that one scene, he said, ‘You’re not a thinker, you’re a driver!’ A lot of times, it is. You have to go with your instinct of what’s the best thing to build a winning team, and most importantly, build a culture.”
That’s the man who will decide who replaces Joe Douglas as general manager of the Jets — unless, that is, he gets pulled back into the Trump Administration first. Does Antarctica need a U.S. ambassador?
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Steve Politi may be reached at [email protected].