Well, thank goodness for this: We finally have a reason for why Vernon Gholston failed to fulfill the potential that got him picked as the eighth overall player in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Jets coach Rex Ryan didn’t give him a chance.
That apparently is Gholston’s story — as told to a couple of reporters after Monday night’s Giants-Bears preseason game — and he apparently is sticking to it.
If he believes that tale of woe, this is what that makes Gholston, signed by the Bears after the Jets released him in the offseason: delusional.
Take it from someone who has covered him since he was drafted by the Jets and made a millionaire before ever suiting up in an NFL uniform: No one in Gholston’s NFL career gave him more chances to succeed, propped him up publicly and protected him from criticism more than Ryan.
No one.
Not Eric Mangini, who was his first head coach. Not any of Mangini’s assistant coaches. Not Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, who drafted him. Not his former teammates.
But Ryan, from the first day he was asked about Gholston, talked him up like he was his son, confident he could make him a productive player.
When the results on the field from Gholston never came close to backing up Ryan’s words, Ryan found good things to say about him.
And for all the loyalty Ryan showed him, Gholston had the audacity to accuse Ryan of prejudging him before he coached him and not giving him a fair shot.
“I hear how he was perceiving me before the draft, before he knew me,” Gholston said Monday. “Being a first-round pick, you would have hoped for more [of a chance].”
More of a chance?
Ryan wouldn’t give his son, Seth, more chances.
When asked yesterday about Gholston’s claim that he had a preconceived notion about him when he arrived to the Jets, Ryan took the high road, declining to lash back at him. This tact, of course, deftly made Gholston look as bad off the field as he has on it.
“Maybe that’s a possibility. I’m certainly not perfect,” Ryan said. “That could be accurate that I pre-judged him. But trust me, when I came here I was his coach. He was one of us. Obviously, I evaluated Vernon when he came out of college. I wasn’t as high on him as maybe others were. But when I got here we were all in.
“I wanted Vernon to be successful. I still want him to be successful. I don’t care what he said about me. That’s fine. He’s a fine young man and I wish him well.”
The only time Ryan’s ire was moderately raised came when Gholston’s claim that he wasn’t given a fair shot was brought up.
“I don’t agree with him on that,” Ryan said. “I’m confused because I think I’m fair. My job is not just to make one player better and to feature one player. Could there have been better defenses to call to make Vernon a better player or make him look like a better player? I’m sure there is. But for us my concern was to make the New York Jets a better defense, not just one player.”
Ryan said he “would have liked” to have Gholston back this year “because I thought he was getting better.”
“Do I think he’s ever going to be Deacon Jones? No,” Ryan said. “Nobody likes to hear negative comments. . . . But if there’s a problem that somebody has or whatever, I’m not going to please everybody. That’s not the position I’m in.”
For all the chances and the kid-gloves treatment Ryan gave Gholston — not to mention the $20 million in guaranteed money he got from the Jets for simply being drafted that high in ’08 — that’s not a position he should have put Ryan in with those comments Monday night.
Gholston should be as ashamed of his weak alibi accusation as he should be for failing to register a sack in his three-year career with the Jets.