This latest Santonio Holmes fiasco — NFL player confronted by police for refusing to turn off his iPod during a flight — is the latest ominous reminder that Rex Ryan and the Jets are playing with a fire that threatens to burn down the Super Bowl building they will be telling the world they live in.
It is the latest reminder why the Steelers, troubled enough by Ben Roethlisberger’s wilding, washed their hands of such a talented receiver who won them their record sixth Super Bowl championship with that wondrous catch in the corner of the end zone against the Cardinals at the end of Super Bowl XLIII.
It is the latest reminder why Mike Tannenbaum & Co. were wise enough to take far less of a risk on Holmes (a fifth-round draft choice and one-year commitment) than Bill Parcells and the Dolphins took on head case Brandon Marshall (four-year, $47.5 million contract extension that includes $24 million in guaranteed money).
“We’re not going into this with our eyes closed,” Tannenbaum said after the trade.
It’s well past time time Santonio Holmes opened his.
“There are more pros than cons,” Tannenbaum said.
It is well past time for Holmes to show he is more pro than con.
Holmes, during his April 12 conference call, was asked if he has asked himself why he hasn’t been able to stay out of trouble, and he replied: “I never ask myself any questions. I’m just accountable for my actions. Right now, I’m accountable for what happened and I’m ready to move forward to start a new career here with the Jets.”
So how does he account for this? For being labeled a “disruptive passenger” by investigators?
“Let’s face it,” Ryan said, “he should’ve turned off his iPod.”
He should have turned the other cheek instead, a lesson Ryan himself learned the hard way when, much to the chagrin of Woody Johnson and Roger Goodell, he gave the finger to an unruly Dolphins fan at that mixed-martial-arts event in Sunrise, Fla., a week before the Super Bowl. It shouldn’t be that difficult. The guy is 26-years-old, for crying out loud.
It is past time for Holmes to grow up and stop being an iClod.
Or perhaps Holmes, who was diverted to another flight out of Pittsburgh for Las Vegas yesterday and, luckily for him, not arrested, decided that a little sparring would get him in the proper frame of mind for tonight’s Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley fight, which he will attend at the MGM Grand.
I have been told that the people in Holmes’ corner are determined to remake his image. But you can’t help someone who refuses to help himself. Who apparently has yet to learn right from wrong. He needs to be scared straight — hopefully the way Roethlisberger has — before he throws the privilege, not the right, of playing in the NFL, away.
Trouble always seems to find some guys, and Holmes is one of those guys. If it’s not marijuana trouble, it’s Twitter trouble. If it’s not Twitter trouble, it’s nightclub trouble. If it’s not nightclub trouble, it’s iPod trouble. Ryan may have picked the wrong time for his lap band surgery because his best chance to get Holmes on the field — once he is finished serving his four-game suspension for violation of the league’s substance abuse policy — may entail sitting on him every waking hour and not letting him up until he’s ready to catch touchdown passes from Mark Sanchez.
Of course, you can probably say the same thing about Antonio Cromartie, the father of the bump-and-run.
Of course, LeBron James probably would say the same thing about Braylon Edwards, his little cousin’s late-night Cleveland nemesis.
We keep hearing how Ryan will be able to handle the characters that have been imported over the offseason. Thomas Jones, gone. Alan Faneca, gone. Leon Washington, gone. A lot of character, gone. The Jets are putting all these eggs in Ryan’s basket in a Super Bowl-or-bust season of great expectations and hoping and praying they aren’t rotten. There are no guarantees they won’t end up scrambled.