CORTLAND — A few days before the season opener against the Bills last year, Rex Ryan bristled at the characterization of the Jets as a circus organization rife with dysfunction. Remember the clown car full of Jets on the back page of The Post?
Back then, Ryan was clinging to the last remnants of cockiness.
“The circus thing is a little old for me,” he said last year. “I think our record says otherwise during the three years we’ve been together.”
This was after two trips to the AFC Championship game and an 8-8 season in 2011 that ended with three consecutive losses. But the image of dysfunction became a reality show during a 6-10 implosion in 2012. It was personified by the now infamous buttfumble against the Patriots when quarterback Mark Sanchez ran into the rear end of right guard Brandon Moore and fumbled the football. It was picked up and returned for a touchdown in an embarrassing 49-19 loss at MetLife Stadium.
At that point the Jets were the laughing stock of the NFL, and the players knew it. One member of the 2012 Jets, who is no longer with the team, told me he was glad “I’m out from the under the big top.”
That should be the theme of the Jets’ 2013 season: “Out from under the big top.”
With the arrival of new general manager John Idzik, the Jets have a chance to change their image. We’re not just talking wins and losses, which will decide whether Ryan keeps his job throughout this season and the next. Regardless of how it winds up for the head coach, the Jets need to become an organization that isn’t just impressed with itself, but impresses others.
It starts Thursday when veterans report for training camp at SUNY Cortland. This is where the culture of sideshows and distractions ends. No HBO “Hard Knocks”, no Darrelle Revis contract issues, no Tebowmania. Just football, please.
The Jets need to begin building a team that is not the reality show it has been in the past. Ryan and owner Woody Johnson were spoiled by the success they enjoyed their first two years together. They believed the Super Bowl was their destiny.
But the team became old, injuries took their toll and Sanchez regressed. The cocky Jets became the clueless Jets, and Ryan offered more hot air than hope.
Thursday they can start to change all that. Sure, they have plenty of issues to address, particularly at quarterback where Sanchez, who should be an established veteran by now, will battle rookie Geno Smith for the starting jobunder the eye of new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. Also, the offensive line must be solidified and the receiving corps must get healthy.
The defense is stocked with young potential, which is a good thing considering how slow the Jets were last year. Ryan is still one of the best defensive minds in the game, but has done his best work with veteran units.
That is what training camp is about: finding starters, adding depth and teaching youngsters. The Jets don’t need the silly stuff. A shirtless Tim Tebow running in the rain; players eating hamburgers before a practice; Ryan predicting Super Bowls, and players calling themselves the best at everything.
The Jets should know by now none of that matters. Tebow is gone, Revis has been traded to the Bucaneers, Tony “Wildcat” Sparano has been replaced by Mornhinweg, Idzik has taken over for Mike Tannenbaum and Ryan doesn’t wield as much power as he once did.The quarterback situation must be better handled than it was last year when Ryan insisted he had three quality quarterbacks in Sanchez, Greg McElroy and Tim Tebow when, in reality, he had none. The Jets were only fooling themselves. They were con men in clown suits.
It’s time to get out from under the big top.