| Tuesday, April 18
By Mark Cannizzaro
Special to ESPN.com |
|
What message were the Jets sending when they traded (gave away?) Keyshawn
Johnson to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week?
|  | | Keyshawn Johnson (right) shows off his new Bucs jersey with owner Malcolm Glazer. |
Are they trying to win now, or are they rebuilding?
The controversial transaction, which has Jets fans livid at the move, would
suggest the latter.
One thing is for certain with the Jets right now: Al Groh, who hasn't even
coached a game for the Jets yet, is already under siege -- particularly after
Johnson placed all the blame for his departure on Groh, saying that Groh
refused to "communicate" with him and never asked what he wanted.
The good news is the Jets, as they entered the 2000 NFL draft, possessed the
most first-round picks (Nos. 12, 13, 18 and 27) of any team in NFL history.
They got the 13th and 27th from the Bucs and traded their 16th and a second-rounder to San Francisco for the 49ers' 12th in the first round.
The bad news is, now that they've kept all four picks, can they sign them? And did they make the right picks?
Johnson is a known star commodity, not to mention the Jets' identity. Those
picks are like lottery tickets. You never know if any of them will lead to a
big payoff.
What was most disturbing about the Jets' trade of Johnson was that it seemed
clear that Groh and the rest of Jets' management, caved in to the pressure
that Johnson's agent, Jerome Stanley, put on them with his threats to have
Johnson become a colossal distraction by holding out of training camp until
he got a new contract.
The reality of the issue was this: With two years still remaining on his
deal, Johnson had no leverage. There's little reason to believe he would sit
out for two years, and those who know Johnson well know his ego wouldn't let
him sit out a single game.
The Jets, however, failed to see that and they ran scared.
Early in the process, Bill Parcells was telling people he was so ticked off
at Stanley and Johnson that he was going to send them to "Siberia."
At the end of the day, however, Parcells and the Jets did Johnson a
wonderful favor. They gave him everything he wanted in the way of money (8
years, $56 million, including a $13 million signing bonus) and playing for a
contender. He became the highest-paid receiver of all time and went to a team
that last January lost in the NFC Championship game.
Hardly Siberia.
Johnson's clear-cut victory over the Jets sets a poor precedent for players
who think they can make noise and get out of a contract they don't like.
The consensus among Johnson's former teammates is disappointment to see him
be shipped. Johnson was a popular figure in the locker room as well as the
most productive player on the team.
|
“ |
When you trade away someone like
Keyshawn Johnson you're trading away someone
that you know what he can do and what he brings to a team. In exchange, you're getting
the unknown. ” |
|
|
— Bryan Cox |
"When you trade away someone like Keyshawn Johnson you're trading away
someone that you know what he can do and what he brings to a team," Jets linebacker Bryan Cox said. "In exchange, you're getting the unknown."
"I'm not sticking around for rebuilding," Cox went on. "I don't have many
years left in this game and I want all of them to be good years. Whether this
is the last year or whether I go somewhere else after this season, I don't
want to be a part of rebuilding anything. I'm too old for that. I want to win
in the here and now."
In the wake of the news that Johnson was going to Tampa Bay, rumblings
around the league -- including from out of Tampa -- were of shock that the Jets
would agree to move Johnson, their best player, for so little.
Many believe the Jets ran scared from Stanley's threats.
"Here's one case where everyone would would benefit from the formula of
George Young," said a high-ranking official from an NFL team who requested
anonymity. "I don't think George Young (the former long-time Giants GM)
would deal a guy like that. If George Young were handling this, he'd know
(Stanley's threats) were just rhetoric, and he'd know the strength of the
player.
"I don't think George Young would throw the baby out with the bath water.
Johnson is their biggest producer. They could be crippling their team."
One prominent NFL agent said he spoke to a Buccaneers front office person,
who said, "I cannot believe (the Jets) are making this trade. I am shocked
that we're getting this deal done. I can't believe (the Jets) are doing
this."
The fact is Johnson's gone for what amounted to the Jets' fear of seeing
their salary cap situation get out of hand. The question now, though, is
this: Where do they think they're going to get the money for four first-round
draft picks?
The signing bonuses of the four players picked in last year's draft at the same spots the Jets drafted on Saturday add up to over $13 million. Ironically, Johnson got a signing bonus of $13.03 million from the Bucs.
For the Jets, it's a dark day and a prospective long season unless they make
something out of those draft picks. Because the message being sent to their
fans by the Jets, who were supposed to be building to "win now" (up until
now), is that they're resigned to the dreaded "R word" -- rebuilding.
|
“ |
I know I would have
taken less money to stay in New York, but the Jets never communicated with me to find
out what I wanted. ” |
|
|
— Keyshawn Johnson |
And doesn't that seem fruitless for a team with a star quarterback like
Vinny Testaverde with perhaps a couple years left and with a new head coach
who's under immense pressure to win ASAP in the wake of Bill Parcells'
departure?
Almost as disappointing as the trade itself was Johnson taking somewhat of a
low road out of town, blaming the entire thing on Groh and, in a fit of
revisionist history, saying that he would have stayed with the Jets for less
money that the Bucs signed him for.
"I'm sitting here happy as pie, but shocked, too," Johnson said after the
trade was made official. "I guess no one man is invincible.
"I wanted to stay in New York as bad as anyone, believe me," Johnson said.
"It didn't get done. The new people (Groh) came in when (Parcells) stepped
aside and decided to go in a different direction."
Johnson acknowledged that the decision to trade him "was everyone's call,
but if you want to take a percentage it was more Al's decision."
Johnson said he last spoke to Parcells the Monday before the trade.
"He told me they're giving Jerome permission (to talk to the Bucs), that he
doesn't want to do it, that it's not all his decision to do it," Johnson
said. "I never asked to be moved. It wasn't about the money; it was more
about getting communication."
When it was pointed out to Johnson that he'd spoken to Groh a few weeks ago,
Johnson said, "He told me, 'We don't know what we're going to do. Our
position stands where it's been. We're not going to trade you. I'll keep in
contact with you.'
"I'm not saying Al Groh is the villain, but Parcells tried to get something
done before and when you are a boss, you try and let your people make the
decisions," Johnson went on. "Parcells is not making the final decisions
anymore. He's helping moreso than he's pulling triggers and strings.
"Based on that, he's not the final decision maker in the thing. Al Groh
makes the decisions, just like Bill Belichick would have. Everyone knows
Parcells is going to step aside in a minute."
Johnson then said, "I know I would have taken less money to stay in New
York, but the Jets never communicated with me to find out what I wanted."
Unfortunately, neither Groh nor Parcells made himself available for comment.
In the wake of making the most significant trade in franchise history, the
Jets' brass who pulled the trigger on it was in a familiar place whenever
there's a trace of controversy: Hiding behind closed doors in bunkers.
|
“ |
There was only one
purpose for the trade and that is for the Jets to be a highly competitive team this season
and for seasons to come. ” |
|
|
— Al Groh |
Instead of standing up front for a mere 10 minutes and answering some
questions their deserving fans would want asked and answered in the wake of
this volatile move, the Jets would offer only a scant 98-word prepared
statement from Groh.
One thing is certain in this mess, if this deal was made by the Giants,
things would have been handled in a much more professional, respectful
manner with a press conference making the involved parties available for
comment.
It's totally understandable that the Jets' brass, particularly with four
first-round picks in hand, was wildly busy working on the draft, but to
not give 10 minutes out of the day to explain such an historic move is
disrespectful to every fan that pays those raised ticket prices to see
Johnson -- one of the most popular players ever to wear a Jets uniform.
This was just another in a series of disheartening and disappointing moves
by the Jets, who in the last year or so have watched team owner Leon Hess
die, Testaverde's torn Achilles tendon rupture the Jets' title hopes,
Parcells step down and Bill Belichick step up and then down.
And now this: The trading of Johnson, a proven star, for one middle and one
late-round first-round draft pick, neither of which might prove to be
anything but a backup or a training camp body.
"We have made this trade with Tampa Bay fully aware that Keyshawn has been a
wonderful player for the Jets and that it will be a challenge to replace
him," Groh said in his canned statement. "I am sure he will continue to be
such a player for the Bucs and we wish him much success.
"There was only one purpose for the trade and that is for the Jets to be a
highly competitive team this season and for seasons to come. The acquisition
of two more first-round picks creates many opportunities for us in the draft,
including more maneuvering."
Bottom line: The Jets, afraid of the fuss Johnson would cause Groh's first
training camp, caved in to Johnson's agent and gave them exactly what they
wanted all along. The Jets did better than renegotiate Johnson's deal;
they allowed for him to strike it rich beyond imagination.
He's now right where he wants to be: The highest-paid receiver in the game.
More fodder to feed Johnson's immense ego. Now he can actually think that,
because he makes more money than Jerry Rice, that he's better than Rice. That, of course, will never be in the real world.
"Keyshawn likes money," said one Jet player, who's friendly with Johnson.
The Jets' reasoning for trading away Johnson was so they wouldn't have to
tear apart their team based on the financial contraints Johnson's demands
would put them under. However, the four first-round picks will cost them a projected $14 million in signing
bonuses alone.
Where's that money coming from?
Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post writes an AFC notebook for ESPN.com. |  |
AFC: Cool it, Keyshawn
