The Jets are no strangers to draft-day drama, but they opted not to be part of the new movie “Draft Day.”
The reason why depends on whom you ask. The Jets originally were slated to be the team that Kevin Costner’s Browns trade with for the No. 1 pick, but the Seahawks ended up being that team in the film.
Ivan Reitman, who directed the movie, told the Los Angeles Times the Jets backed out just before shooting was ready to begin at the 2013 NFL Draft.
Reitman said the Jets were sensitive to the portrayal, even a fictional one, that they would pass on the top quarterback in the draft like the team does in the movie when it sends the top pick to Costner and the Browns. At the time, the Jets had Mark Sanchez on the roster and were days away from drafting Geno Smith.
“They were having something of a quarterback dispute, and the team said that this is just going to incite our fans a little more to criticize us, even though it’s all fictional,” Reitman told the newspaper.
But a source familiar with the discussions between the team and the moviemakers said the Jets were open to being in the movie but had reservations about how their fans were portrayed in the original script.
The source said the scenes went over the top with the fans’ reaction to the trade and the team did not feel it was a positive representation of Jets fans. The source said the film went with the Seahawks before the Jets heard back about possible changes to the script. The source said the Jets’ hesitancy had nothing to do with their quarterback situation.