October 9, 2024 • 21 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses why the New York Jets felt compelled to fire head coach Robert Saleh just five weeks into the season, how much blood is on the hands of mercurial quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the narrative that Woody Johnson axed Saleh due to his own political leanings and whether or not the Jets still have what it takes to salvage the season and make a run at the postseason.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Fire for Wednesday, October ninth. Uh listen. I dreaded this
day would come, folks. I had a feeling it was
on the horizon. I didn't think it'd be this imminent.
But yes, we will be doing a podcast today about
(00:31):
the departure of Robert Salah, head coach of the Jets.
First coach. Fire did not have that ticket. I thought
the Jets would be four and one at this stage,
ladies and germs. I had a vibe that they would
be better than they are. And now Robert Sala's gone.
So just to take you a little bit behind the curtain.
So you know, we got into a good groove with
Football podcast this season where we would do obviously a
(00:56):
Monday reaction show to the weekend in sports. We would
do a Tuesday reaction on Monday Night Football, and then
Wednesday and Thursday we do interviews and then Friday NFL
Picks and Thursday Night Football Reaction. And so I told Rob,
I was like, oh, I got to get a Jets guy.
I got to get my guy, Brian Costello, and I
reached out to Brian. He's like, dude, I'm slammed. Maybe
I could fit it in. And Rob g hits me
up and he's like, you know, you don't want to
(01:18):
admit it, but your brand is kind of sports media Jets.
Those are like when people say Jason McIntyre, they think, oh,
it's a big league. Yeah, he's on the herd and
he's got straight fire and he's a Jets fan, and
kind of I don't want to say I'm a Lebron stand,
but I'm a Lebron guy. I don't mind a bit
agmat And so Rob's like, why don't you just riff
(01:40):
on the Jets? And I was like, you know, I
didn't really want to do it. I'm not gonna lie.
I don't I don't want to do twenty twenty five
thirty minutes ripping the Jets and tearing these these guys
to shreds. I've been a fan of the Jets since
I was in elementary school. I've told the story many times.
I was born in New York and then we moved
to My dad got a job at the government, so
we moved to Virginia. And so as you're a young guy,
(02:03):
and you start to like sports. It just so happens that,
like the Washington Redskins at the time were the dominant
football team, and they were. They were the hugest deal
in Virginia. There were no Baltimore Ravens at the time.
It was basically a Washington Redskins town. They had won
in the early eighties and then they by like what
nineteen was it, late eighties they really were cresting, and
(02:25):
then in the nineties they were amazing. But it was
a Redskins town. And I, guys, if you know anything
about me, you know, I've never been a follow the
crowd guy, and I just could not get on board
with Washington. Okay, you would be walking to school and
the crossing guards would be handing out like football cards
of Washington Redskins players, Darryl Green, the guys on the Hogs.
(02:46):
Was it like Jojacobe and all those guys. You know,
it was everything. They were the biggest deal in town,
and I, Jason was just like, no, I got back.
Washington was born in New York and the Jets had
you know, I had cool colors and they had this
wide receiver Altoon who was awesome and Wesley Walker. They
had a high, high prolific offense. And so we would
(03:11):
go to New York on holidays and I would obviously be,
you know, watching the Jets, and they were pretty good,
but not great. They were good. The New York Giants
were better. But I was like, let me, let me
root for these underdogs, the Jets. And I've been a
fan ever since, and YadA, YadA, YadA. And I'll just
remind you, guys, two years ago when the Jets decided
(03:33):
we're going all in for Aaron Rodgers, I was shouting
from the rooftops on this podcast, on social media, on
the herd, wait a minute, Lamar Jackson isn't signing with
the Ravens. He's demanding a Deshaun Watson deal. I would
rather give that deal to to Lamar with the Jets
and overpay for Lamar then pay for Aaron Rodgers. He's old, guys,
(03:54):
kind of kind of a can we say he's a jerk.
And so I was not all about Aaron Rodgers, but
as a Jets faean, I was going to root for him.
And then of course he gets hurt in four plays
and you're like, Jimmy Christmas, what is happening here. So
then I'm like, all right, fine, you know here he
is next season. And pretty early on in the summer
you could tell that him and Sala were not on
the same page. And then came the incident against the
(04:17):
Patriots where you know, Rogers threw a touchdown pass. I
think that put him up seventeen three, and he ran
over to the sideline and Sala's all fired up, because
that's that's Sala's brand, if you will. Back in San Francisco,
players loved him. Defensive coordinator, fiery guy, very emotional on
the sideline, and the players love that. Well. You know
(04:37):
who didn't like that was Aaron Rodgers, and that should
have been a big tell that WHOA, things are really
not good. When Rogers came over, Salah goes to like
hug him, and Rogers is like yo yo, as if
you would do to someone with bad breath, or like
some random who thought he was your friend and he
was drunk and you were like, oh, dude, chill, that's
his coach. And at that moment, I was like, oh,
(04:58):
that's not good. But they won the game and everybody
looked past it. And then came the Denver disaster in
the rain where it was just a cluster. You do
wonder what happened if Greg the leg makes that fifty
yarder at the end and the Jets win. Is Stala
still there? And then of course they go to London
for the game against the Vikings and it's a disaster.
(05:20):
They fall out, They go three and out, three and
out to start the game. They're down seventeen nothing, they
storm back. I'm not going to pin the game on Sala.
I don't think he lost the game because if you
saw that defense, they did a great job on Darnold.
I believe Justin Jefferson had one catch in the entire
second half. I know they were a bunch of flags,
but the defense kept playing, kept them in the game
while Rogers kept throwing interceptions, and so the Jets end
(05:43):
up losing. And it just I didn't think it would
be done this quickly. Now. Woody Johnson, the buffoon that
he is, opened his mouth on Tuesday and said, there
is the best Jets team we've had in twenty five years.
That's a come on. That Mark Sanchez team when Sanchez
was a rookie was really good and they basically ran
(06:05):
it back the next year with a couple other added players,
and they went to the AFC Championship. That team was
way better than this one. Offensive line was awesome. I
know Sanchez was no Aaron Rodgers, but nevertheless that defense
was phenomenal. Like, that was an awesome Jets team. And
they lost in a tough, tough AFC Championship game in
Pittsburgh where they just couldn't get a stop late in
(06:25):
the game and Ben Roethlisberger kept converting third downs and
the Jets ended up leaving and that was the end.
That was the last time they were in a playoff game.
So Woody Johnson says, oh, this is the best team
we've had in twenty five years, and then he proceeds
to say, yeah, I talked to Aaron Rodgers last night,
but we didn't talk about Sala, Like how dumb do
you think people are?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I know football fare, you know derisively referred to as
troglodytes and beer drinking, Cheetos eating idiots who sit on
the couch for ten hours a day like I do
on Sundays and just gorge themselves and they're unintelligent. And
that's just idiotic for Whatody Johnson to think anybody's gonna
believe that, Yeah, I talked to my quarterback last night
(07:22):
and then I fired the coach this morning. Like, who's
gonna believe that Rogers had no say in this? It's
very obvious that Aaron Rodgers put the knife in Salas back.
I'm not saying Rogers said fire him, but when the
owner was asking questions to Rogers, I'm certain it was
not a resounding vote of confidence. That's obvious, or Sala
would still be here. When Rogers wants something from what
(07:45):
Hey Johnson, he gets it. He wants Nathaniel Hackett done deal,
he wants Randall Cobb last year, got it done. He
wants Alan's art. Okay, we got it. Basically, Rogers just
holding the franchise hostage. And so for every to think
that Rogers had nothing to do with this, guys like
you just need to get a freaking clue. It's very
obvious that this was driven by Rogers. Now here's the
(08:08):
weird part that gets just I don't know, like, I
watched this Chargers play and they were quitting on Brandon
Staley and they got run out of the building in
Vegas by I think it was sixty three to fourteen
or something like that, and then you fire Staley. Players quit.
I get it, But why would you fire Sala? Now? Okay,
you didn't get embarrassed by the Vikings. You lost, and
(08:31):
it was your quarterback's fault. He threw three picks, including
a pick six. That was that game was not on Sola.
That was on Rogers. Obviously, the offense had a lot
of question marks. Why is Rogers throwing fifty four times
and they ran fourteen times? Okay, fine, that's a great
question for Nathaniel Hackett. Now, if you want to go
back a week and talk about the whole Cadence thing
(08:51):
where Sala made some comments and Rogers quickly rebuffed them,
that's fine, you can you can bring those up. Was
the team ill prepared to play? It certainly felt like it,
But there's enough talent on this team that shouldn't have
been an issue. Again, the offense could do nothing right.
So I look at this and I'm like, so, why
would you fire him now? And that's where it gets interesting,
(09:14):
because it's like, listen, if Greg the leg hat hit
that fifty yard er against the Broncos, if Rogers had
not thrown a pick, and I know I'm playing the
if ands or butts game, and you can laugh at
that is solid still coaching. But why now? Why now?
Ahead of the biggest game of the season on Monday
night football at home, standalone game, showcase game, and you're
(09:37):
gonna try it on an interim coach. And oh, by
the way, the next week, Jets are in primetime again.
Now that's probably a little too much Jets in primetime
for everybody's liking, But back to back primetime games with
an interim coach. Have you guys seen what the Dolphins
look like within not an interim quarterback, but a backup
quarterback is two is out?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I know the coach doesn't have that as much impact,
but as we saw from Andy Reid and several others,
coaching matters significantly obviously in the NFL. It's just a
bad look for the franchise to be trying on an
introim coach this early in the season. They're two and three,
the sky's not falling. It just it made absolutely no sense.
And this is the crap I got to deal with
(10:15):
as a Jets fan. And I honestly, you know, for
years I got my kids this, you know, when they
were young, Sam Darneld Jerseys. Of course, you know, then
they get to be like what eight nine? They're like, Dad,
why are you a Jets fan? The Jets are terrible?
You should root for the Chiefs, so the forty nine
ers they're good, or you should root for the Eagles.
And obviously I root for the local teams out here,
(10:37):
the Rams and the Chargers, and you know, we go
to some games occasionally. Yeah you're gonna rode food, root
for the home team. But I can't get anybody in
my family to care about the Jets. And I have
started to question why do I do? Why do I
even care about these guys? Like is it worth it?
Is it worth my energy? And I'm not a quitter.
You guys know that I don't throw in the towel.
(11:01):
It's just so frustrating to be a Jets fan because
of crap like this, and then you start getting conspiracy theories. Okay,
are you guys ready for this? I'm sure you've seen
this online. It is beyond idiotic. But it's the Jets.
And when you're low hanging fruit like the Jets, everybody's
taking shots because guess what, you guys think. The franchise
(11:21):
is a joke. If you look at the worst franchises
in the NFL right now, there's one thing in common.
Carolina Panthers are total garbage right now. Okay, their owner
since he'd taken over, Oh my gosh, has he been bad? Tepper,
he's awful. The Cleveland Browns owner force feeds Deshaun Watson.
Sean Watson is now awful. They make the playoffs with Flaco.
(11:41):
Let Flacco go. We're invested in Watson. The Browns are
total garbage. And then of course the Jets with Woody Johnson.
All three of those owners stink. The only other team
that's really bad as the Patriots, And we'll see what
happens with Kraft here and whether they can turn it around.
They just announced Drake may is going to be the
starter this weekend. Good luck. Like offensive line decimated against
(12:03):
the Texans in that pass rush. Have fun, Drake Meank,
Welcome to the NFL. But you know, it's one of
those situations where the Jets are so bad that like
literally anybody can say anything and it's like, oh, that
might be true. So here's the conspiracy theory that was
floating around. Yesterday at the game in London, Robert Sala
(12:26):
wore Elebanon patch on his arm, on his Jets hoodie
or whatever it was that he was wearing at the
game in London. And we know Woody Johnson is a
little bit crazy. I mean, you could go look up
his background. He's got a lot of incidents, shall we say.
There was the report, I think this is out there
(12:50):
that the NFL network had somebody, I think it was
Colleen Wolf maybe last this past summer, said something to
the effect of, oh, Woody Johnson had a big blow
up with I think it was Sala at the coaches meetings.
This was like back in March. And then instantly the
NFL network had to like apologize. And I guess Colleen
Wolf had said it on a podcast around the Around
(13:14):
the NFL, which has been around for a decade or something.
The podcast is gone, it was it was take it
was done. Now. I don't know if Woody Johnson did that,
but you guys know who owns the NFL network. NFL
owners and for someone to say something about Woody Johnson
and then for a long standing podcast just be gone.
Now she wasn't. I guess she's not one of the
(13:35):
core people on there. I didn't really listen to the pod,
so I don't know, but I guess she was a
guest on the pod. She works at a NFL network,
and everyone else was collateral damage. I now that I
don't know how much of a conspiracy theory that is.
That's what I had heard from multiple people, and it's
like she's owners got power. Would Woody Johnson actually be
pissed about Robert Sala who is born in Lebanon? Just
(13:59):
just for the record, Robert's background, family, all that stuff,
he's Lebanese. Is there really an issue? I'm sorry, he
was not born in Lebanon. He was born in Michigan.
His family, his family or Lebanese immigrants living in Michigan.
So he's American, but he's his family is Lebanese. So
(14:20):
Robert Sala, of course wearing a Lebanon patch, Now, is
that out of pocket? I don't know. A couple of
people on one online credible reporters and we're like, listen,
many many coaches have worn patches from Italy and all
these other places. I don't see how this is an issue.
I mean, I guess if you're looking for an excuse
to fire him, maybe you tossed that. But there's no
(14:41):
way they would say that publicly. Come on, that would
be open to a lawsuit. Give me a break. I
can't imagine that that would be the reason that he
got canned. However, that went totally viral and everybody's like, oh, Lebanon, Israel,
and I just I can't, guys, I can't.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Fox Sports Radio as the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
What is interesting is Robert Sala went to work on Tuesday,
ready to prepare for the Buffalo Bills. Then he gets called, Hey,
Woody Johnson and Christopher Johnson, they would like to see
you for a meeting. At that meeting, now, it's unclear.
There's many people. Jordan Schultz, who does some stuff for
(15:33):
Bleacher Report and Fox and FS one, and Peter Schrager
who is at NFL Network and does some stuff for Fox.
They are reporting about this meeting and It's kind of
unclear from what they're both saying as to whether or
not the GM Joe Douglas was actually in the meeting. Nevertheless,
the owners say, Robert, thank you for your service. We're
(15:54):
gonna let you go. Okay, so you're thinking, oh, man, okay,
well that stinks for Robert. All right, Well I guess
I'll go say bye everybody. Uh. According to multiple reporters,
including Mike Florio, the Jets said, we're gonna have security
escort you out of the building. What he didn't get
to address his team. The team loves him, plays for him.
(16:17):
I know his records not great. I'm not here defending
Robert Sala as a good coach. I'm not saying he's
a great coach. I don't think anybody knows. I mean,
I would lean toward, you know, not a great coach.
But it still is a little disrespectful for them to say, hey,
you got to you ain't got to go home, but
you got to get ab out of here, and you
can't say bye to your team, Like, is that not
(16:39):
royally messed up? To kick the escort the guy out
of the building. Why he was he gonna pull like
a Jerry maguire and go go crazy like it just
it's all just such a Mickey Mouse embarrassing operation. And
this is why, you know, it's easy for me to
question my allegiance to this damn football team. Where do
(17:00):
they go from here? Well, I'm sure you guys know
how these things work. Right, just as everyone's piling on
the Jets, they're a dumpster fire. Oh my gosh, the
owner's an idiot. Aaron Rodgers stinks. I did see a
chart where Aaron Rodgers EPA is right down there with
Gardner Minshoes through five games. Take that as to what
you will, and you know what's gonna happen. The Jets
are gonna go into Monday Night Football. They're gonna play inspired,
(17:23):
not because they didn't like their coach, but maybe for him.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
This is just usually how it happens. How there's like
an interim coach bump. Antonio Pierce got it last year
with the Raiders. And you watch, the Jets will take
down the Buffalo Bills, they'll be tied for first and
everyone will say. Everybody will say, oh, well, maybe Robert
Salah was the problem. You know, you guys just know
that's coming you know it's coming, and that this league
(17:49):
is just so bonkers right now with all the what
the underdogs are doing. It's I would say it's predictable
when this crazy stuff happens, but it's kind of unpredictable
because otherwise people will been making money gambling and it's
extremely difficult to predict what's gonna happen. But I'm fairly
confident in saying the Jets will show up and play
(18:11):
great on Monday Night football. I don't know if it's inspired.
Maybe Rogers is gonna play his best game of the season.
I don't know what to say. This Buffalo team is
not great, and they were fixing to get blown out
by the Texans before the injury to Nico Collins and CJ.
Stroud vomited all over himself. But it's just a one
of these disappointing times to be a Jets fan, which
(18:32):
is kind of been a theme here over the last
I don't know thirty years of my Jets fandom. I
think I've told this story before, But you guys know,
I have a minority stake in a soccer team in
Mexico and we had a game last year in Carolina,
so I flew out there for the game, and you know,
(18:54):
we were playing the kem spacing on their team name,
but the MLS team in Carolina, and it was it
was embarrassing. We lost five nothing, and the mood in
the locker room was somber. It was disappointing. It was
like what the hell. And then afterward, a couple of
(19:15):
the owners GM, you know, we get together for drinks
and we're talking and then the coach shows up and
he was a little defensive after he got his ass
kick five nothing, and he was like not wanting to talk,
didn't want to explain anything. He was just like, yeah, whatever.
(19:37):
And it was one of those like I'm sitting there,
this is I'm kind of new to this stuff, although
I you know, had a couple of experiences with the
New Zealand basketball team. But it's like, wait a minute,
this is not how someone should be reacting after a
five nothing loss. Like he was fired within a week.
And I just wonder if Robert Salah had been like
(20:03):
play caated his quarterback a little bit more gone after
him the back and forth about the cadence the whole
Egypt trip, if he had done less of that publicly,
would he still be there, or maybe he doesn't want
to be there. I mean, I can't imagine he doesn't
want to be a head coach in the NFL. But
do you think you want to work with Aaron Rodgers?
I don't even know if the Jets' job is a
(20:24):
good one. Guys like seeing Rogers ran off McCarthy, he
ran off Sala. Rogers has two playoff wins in the
last six years. He also has run off two coaches midseason.
What does that tell you? I don't know how good
of a job this is. I'm gonna be honest, and
Jacksonville opens up, what would you rather do coach Trevor
Lawrence or coach Aaron Rodgers for a year and deal
(20:44):
with his crap? I think that's a fair question. I
don't know that this is a good job because of
Aaron Rodgers, and now it just feels like we're back
on the hamster wheel and starting all over again, and
it sucks. Guys. Maybe I'll take I'll take you know,
opinions on it, whether or not I should add a
(21:04):
new team to root for and maybe dial back my
Jets them. But it's just another day in paradise for
the new York Football Jets just a really bad franchise
in a bad place right now. So it's possible that
I win the lottery, I make a lot of money,
and then I'm able to buy the Jets, but that
doesn't seem to be on the horizon. We're back tomorrow.
(21:27):
Talk to you then.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Fire for Wednesday, October ninth. Uh listen. I dreaded this
day would come, folks. I had a feeling it was
on the horizon. I didn't think it'd be this imminent.
But yes, we will be doing a podcast today about
(00:31):
the departure of Robert Salah, head coach of the Jets.
First coach. Fire did not have that ticket. I thought
the Jets would be four and one at this stage,
ladies and germs. I had a vibe that they would
be better than they are. And now Robert Sala's gone.
So just to take you a little bit behind the curtain.
So you know, we got into a good groove with
Football podcast this season where we would do obviously a
(00:56):
Monday reaction show to the weekend in sports. We would
do a Tuesday reaction on Monday Night Football, and then
Wednesday and Thursday we do interviews and then Friday NFL
Picks and Thursday Night Football Reaction. And so I told Rob,
I was like, oh, I got to get a Jets guy.
I got to get my guy, Brian Costello, and I
reached out to Brian. He's like, dude, I'm slammed. Maybe
I could fit it in. And Rob g hits me
up and he's like, you know, you don't want to
(01:18):
admit it, but your brand is kind of sports media Jets.
Those are like when people say Jason McIntyre, they think, oh,
it's a big league. Yeah, he's on the herd and
he's got straight fire and he's a Jets fan, and
kind of I don't want to say I'm a Lebron stand,
but I'm a Lebron guy. I don't mind a bit
agmat And so Rob's like, why don't you just riff
(01:40):
on the Jets? And I was like, you know, I
didn't really want to do it. I'm not gonna lie.
I don't I don't want to do twenty twenty five
thirty minutes ripping the Jets and tearing these these guys
to shreds. I've been a fan of the Jets since
I was in elementary school. I've told the story many times.
I was born in New York and then we moved
to My dad got a job at the government, so
we moved to Virginia. And so as you're a young guy,
(02:03):
and you start to like sports. It just so happens that,
like the Washington Redskins at the time were the dominant
football team, and they were. They were the hugest deal
in Virginia. There were no Baltimore Ravens at the time.
It was basically a Washington Redskins town. They had won
in the early eighties and then they by like what
nineteen was it, late eighties they really were cresting, and
(02:25):
then in the nineties they were amazing. But it was
a Redskins town. And I, guys, if you know anything
about me, you know, I've never been a follow the
crowd guy, and I just could not get on board
with Washington. Okay, you would be walking to school and
the crossing guards would be handing out like football cards
of Washington Redskins players, Darryl Green, the guys on the Hogs.
(02:46):
Was it like Jojacobe and all those guys. You know,
it was everything. They were the biggest deal in town,
and I, Jason was just like, no, I got back.
Washington was born in New York and the Jets had
you know, I had cool colors and they had this
wide receiver Altoon who was awesome and Wesley Walker. They
had a high, high prolific offense. And so we would
(03:11):
go to New York on holidays and I would obviously be,
you know, watching the Jets, and they were pretty good,
but not great. They were good. The New York Giants
were better. But I was like, let me, let me
root for these underdogs, the Jets. And I've been a
fan ever since, and YadA, YadA, YadA. And I'll just
remind you, guys, two years ago when the Jets decided
(03:33):
we're going all in for Aaron Rodgers, I was shouting
from the rooftops on this podcast, on social media, on
the herd, wait a minute, Lamar Jackson isn't signing with
the Ravens. He's demanding a Deshaun Watson deal. I would
rather give that deal to to Lamar with the Jets
and overpay for Lamar then pay for Aaron Rodgers. He's old, guys,
(03:54):
kind of kind of a can we say he's a jerk.
And so I was not all about Aaron Rodgers, but
as a Jets faean, I was going to root for him.
And then of course he gets hurt in four plays
and you're like, Jimmy Christmas, what is happening here. So
then I'm like, all right, fine, you know here he
is next season. And pretty early on in the summer
you could tell that him and Sala were not on
the same page. And then came the incident against the
(04:17):
Patriots where you know, Rogers threw a touchdown pass. I
think that put him up seventeen three, and he ran
over to the sideline and Sala's all fired up, because
that's that's Sala's brand, if you will. Back in San Francisco,
players loved him. Defensive coordinator, fiery guy, very emotional on
the sideline, and the players love that. Well. You know
(04:37):
who didn't like that was Aaron Rodgers, and that should
have been a big tell that WHOA, things are really
not good. When Rogers came over, Salah goes to like
hug him, and Rogers is like yo yo, as if
you would do to someone with bad breath, or like
some random who thought he was your friend and he
was drunk and you were like, oh, dude, chill, that's
his coach. And at that moment, I was like, oh,
(04:58):
that's not good. But they won the game and everybody
looked past it. And then came the Denver disaster in
the rain where it was just a cluster. You do
wonder what happened if Greg the leg makes that fifty
yarder at the end and the Jets win. Is Stala
still there? And then of course they go to London
for the game against the Vikings and it's a disaster.
(05:20):
They fall out, They go three and out, three and
out to start the game. They're down seventeen nothing, they
storm back. I'm not going to pin the game on Sala.
I don't think he lost the game because if you
saw that defense, they did a great job on Darnold.
I believe Justin Jefferson had one catch in the entire
second half. I know they were a bunch of flags,
but the defense kept playing, kept them in the game
while Rogers kept throwing interceptions, and so the Jets end
(05:43):
up losing. And it just I didn't think it would
be done this quickly. Now. Woody Johnson, the buffoon that
he is, opened his mouth on Tuesday and said, there
is the best Jets team we've had in twenty five years.
That's a come on. That Mark Sanchez team when Sanchez
was a rookie was really good and they basically ran
(06:05):
it back the next year with a couple other added players,
and they went to the AFC Championship. That team was
way better than this one. Offensive line was awesome. I
know Sanchez was no Aaron Rodgers, but nevertheless that defense
was phenomenal. Like, that was an awesome Jets team. And
they lost in a tough, tough AFC Championship game in
Pittsburgh where they just couldn't get a stop late in
(06:25):
the game and Ben Roethlisberger kept converting third downs and
the Jets ended up leaving and that was the end.
That was the last time they were in a playoff game.
So Woody Johnson says, oh, this is the best team
we've had in twenty five years, and then he proceeds
to say, yeah, I talked to Aaron Rodgers last night,
but we didn't talk about Sala, Like how dumb do
you think people are?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I know football fare, you know derisively referred to as
troglodytes and beer drinking, Cheetos eating idiots who sit on
the couch for ten hours a day like I do
on Sundays and just gorge themselves and they're unintelligent. And
that's just idiotic for Whatody Johnson to think anybody's gonna
believe that, Yeah, I talked to my quarterback last night
(07:22):
and then I fired the coach this morning. Like, who's
gonna believe that Rogers had no say in this? It's
very obvious that Aaron Rodgers put the knife in Salas back.
I'm not saying Rogers said fire him, but when the
owner was asking questions to Rogers, I'm certain it was
not a resounding vote of confidence. That's obvious, or Sala
would still be here. When Rogers wants something from what
(07:45):
Hey Johnson, he gets it. He wants Nathaniel Hackett done deal,
he wants Randall Cobb last year, got it done. He
wants Alan's art. Okay, we got it. Basically, Rogers just
holding the franchise hostage. And so for every to think
that Rogers had nothing to do with this, guys like
you just need to get a freaking clue. It's very
obvious that this was driven by Rogers. Now here's the
(08:08):
weird part that gets just I don't know, like, I
watched this Chargers play and they were quitting on Brandon
Staley and they got run out of the building in
Vegas by I think it was sixty three to fourteen
or something like that, and then you fire Staley. Players quit.
I get it, But why would you fire Sala? Now? Okay,
you didn't get embarrassed by the Vikings. You lost, and
(08:31):
it was your quarterback's fault. He threw three picks, including
a pick six. That was that game was not on Sola.
That was on Rogers. Obviously, the offense had a lot
of question marks. Why is Rogers throwing fifty four times
and they ran fourteen times? Okay, fine, that's a great
question for Nathaniel Hackett. Now, if you want to go
back a week and talk about the whole Cadence thing
(08:51):
where Sala made some comments and Rogers quickly rebuffed them,
that's fine, you can you can bring those up. Was
the team ill prepared to play? It certainly felt like it,
But there's enough talent on this team that shouldn't have
been an issue. Again, the offense could do nothing right.
So I look at this and I'm like, so, why
would you fire him now? And that's where it gets interesting,
(09:14):
because it's like, listen, if Greg the leg hat hit
that fifty yard er against the Broncos, if Rogers had
not thrown a pick, and I know I'm playing the
if ands or butts game, and you can laugh at
that is solid still coaching. But why now? Why now?
Ahead of the biggest game of the season on Monday
night football at home, standalone game, showcase game, and you're
(09:37):
gonna try it on an interim coach. And oh, by
the way, the next week, Jets are in primetime again.
Now that's probably a little too much Jets in primetime
for everybody's liking, But back to back primetime games with
an interim coach. Have you guys seen what the Dolphins
look like within not an interim quarterback, but a backup
quarterback is two is out?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I know the coach doesn't have that as much impact,
but as we saw from Andy Reid and several others,
coaching matters significantly obviously in the NFL. It's just a
bad look for the franchise to be trying on an
introim coach this early in the season. They're two and three,
the sky's not falling. It just it made absolutely no sense.
And this is the crap I got to deal with
(10:15):
as a Jets fan. And I honestly, you know, for
years I got my kids this, you know, when they
were young, Sam Darneld Jerseys. Of course, you know, then
they get to be like what eight nine? They're like, Dad,
why are you a Jets fan? The Jets are terrible?
You should root for the Chiefs, so the forty nine
ers they're good, or you should root for the Eagles.
And obviously I root for the local teams out here,
(10:37):
the Rams and the Chargers, and you know, we go
to some games occasionally. Yeah you're gonna rode food, root
for the home team. But I can't get anybody in
my family to care about the Jets. And I have
started to question why do I do? Why do I
even care about these guys? Like is it worth it?
Is it worth my energy? And I'm not a quitter.
You guys know that I don't throw in the towel.
(11:01):
It's just so frustrating to be a Jets fan because
of crap like this, and then you start getting conspiracy theories. Okay,
are you guys ready for this? I'm sure you've seen
this online. It is beyond idiotic. But it's the Jets.
And when you're low hanging fruit like the Jets, everybody's
taking shots because guess what, you guys think. The franchise
(11:21):
is a joke. If you look at the worst franchises
in the NFL right now, there's one thing in common.
Carolina Panthers are total garbage right now. Okay, their owner
since he'd taken over, Oh my gosh, has he been bad? Tepper,
he's awful. The Cleveland Browns owner force feeds Deshaun Watson.
Sean Watson is now awful. They make the playoffs with Flaco.
(11:41):
Let Flacco go. We're invested in Watson. The Browns are
total garbage. And then of course the Jets with Woody Johnson.
All three of those owners stink. The only other team
that's really bad as the Patriots, And we'll see what
happens with Kraft here and whether they can turn it around.
They just announced Drake may is going to be the
starter this weekend. Good luck. Like offensive line decimated against
(12:03):
the Texans in that pass rush. Have fun, Drake Meank,
Welcome to the NFL. But you know, it's one of
those situations where the Jets are so bad that like
literally anybody can say anything and it's like, oh, that
might be true. So here's the conspiracy theory that was
floating around. Yesterday at the game in London, Robert Sala
(12:26):
wore Elebanon patch on his arm, on his Jets hoodie
or whatever it was that he was wearing at the
game in London. And we know Woody Johnson is a
little bit crazy. I mean, you could go look up
his background. He's got a lot of incidents, shall we say.
There was the report, I think this is out there
(12:50):
that the NFL network had somebody, I think it was
Colleen Wolf maybe last this past summer, said something to
the effect of, oh, Woody Johnson had a big blow
up with I think it was Sala at the coaches meetings.
This was like back in March. And then instantly the
NFL network had to like apologize. And I guess Colleen
Wolf had said it on a podcast around the Around
(13:14):
the NFL, which has been around for a decade or something.
The podcast is gone, it was it was take it
was done. Now. I don't know if Woody Johnson did that,
but you guys know who owns the NFL network. NFL
owners and for someone to say something about Woody Johnson
and then for a long standing podcast just be gone.
Now she wasn't. I guess she's not one of the
(13:35):
core people on there. I didn't really listen to the pod,
so I don't know, but I guess she was a
guest on the pod. She works at a NFL network,
and everyone else was collateral damage. I now that I
don't know how much of a conspiracy theory that is.
That's what I had heard from multiple people, and it's
like she's owners got power. Would Woody Johnson actually be
pissed about Robert Sala who is born in Lebanon? Just
(13:59):
just for the record, Robert's background, family, all that stuff,
he's Lebanese. Is there really an issue? I'm sorry, he
was not born in Lebanon. He was born in Michigan.
His family, his family or Lebanese immigrants living in Michigan.
So he's American, but he's his family is Lebanese. So
(14:20):
Robert Sala, of course wearing a Lebanon patch, Now, is
that out of pocket? I don't know. A couple of
people on one online credible reporters and we're like, listen,
many many coaches have worn patches from Italy and all
these other places. I don't see how this is an issue.
I mean, I guess if you're looking for an excuse
to fire him, maybe you tossed that. But there's no
(14:41):
way they would say that publicly. Come on, that would
be open to a lawsuit. Give me a break. I
can't imagine that that would be the reason that he
got canned. However, that went totally viral and everybody's like, oh, Lebanon, Israel,
and I just I can't, guys, I can't.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Fox Sports Radio as the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
What is interesting is Robert Sala went to work on Tuesday,
ready to prepare for the Buffalo Bills. Then he gets called, Hey,
Woody Johnson and Christopher Johnson, they would like to see
you for a meeting. At that meeting, now, it's unclear.
There's many people. Jordan Schultz, who does some stuff for
(15:33):
Bleacher Report and Fox and FS one, and Peter Schrager
who is at NFL Network and does some stuff for Fox.
They are reporting about this meeting and It's kind of
unclear from what they're both saying as to whether or
not the GM Joe Douglas was actually in the meeting. Nevertheless,
the owners say, Robert, thank you for your service. We're
(15:54):
gonna let you go. Okay, so you're thinking, oh, man, okay,
well that stinks for Robert. All right, Well I guess
I'll go say bye everybody. Uh. According to multiple reporters,
including Mike Florio, the Jets said, we're gonna have security
escort you out of the building. What he didn't get
to address his team. The team loves him, plays for him.
(16:17):
I know his records not great. I'm not here defending
Robert Sala as a good coach. I'm not saying he's
a great coach. I don't think anybody knows. I mean,
I would lean toward, you know, not a great coach.
But it still is a little disrespectful for them to say, hey,
you got to you ain't got to go home, but
you got to get ab out of here, and you
can't say bye to your team, Like, is that not
(16:39):
royally messed up? To kick the escort the guy out
of the building. Why he was he gonna pull like
a Jerry maguire and go go crazy like it just
it's all just such a Mickey Mouse embarrassing operation. And
this is why, you know, it's easy for me to
question my allegiance to this damn football team. Where do
(17:00):
they go from here? Well, I'm sure you guys know
how these things work. Right, just as everyone's piling on
the Jets, they're a dumpster fire. Oh my gosh, the
owner's an idiot. Aaron Rodgers stinks. I did see a
chart where Aaron Rodgers EPA is right down there with
Gardner Minshoes through five games. Take that as to what
you will, and you know what's gonna happen. The Jets
are gonna go into Monday Night Football. They're gonna play inspired,
(17:23):
not because they didn't like their coach, but maybe for him.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
This is just usually how it happens. How there's like
an interim coach bump. Antonio Pierce got it last year
with the Raiders. And you watch, the Jets will take
down the Buffalo Bills, they'll be tied for first and
everyone will say. Everybody will say, oh, well, maybe Robert
Salah was the problem. You know, you guys just know
that's coming you know it's coming, and that this league
(17:49):
is just so bonkers right now with all the what
the underdogs are doing. It's I would say it's predictable
when this crazy stuff happens, but it's kind of unpredictable
because otherwise people will been making money gambling and it's
extremely difficult to predict what's gonna happen. But I'm fairly
confident in saying the Jets will show up and play
(18:11):
great on Monday Night football. I don't know if it's inspired.
Maybe Rogers is gonna play his best game of the season.
I don't know what to say. This Buffalo team is
not great, and they were fixing to get blown out
by the Texans before the injury to Nico Collins and CJ.
Stroud vomited all over himself. But it's just a one
of these disappointing times to be a Jets fan, which
(18:32):
is kind of been a theme here over the last
I don't know thirty years of my Jets fandom. I
think I've told this story before, But you guys know,
I have a minority stake in a soccer team in
Mexico and we had a game last year in Carolina,
so I flew out there for the game, and you know,
(18:54):
we were playing the kem spacing on their team name,
but the MLS team in Carolina, and it was it
was embarrassing. We lost five nothing, and the mood in
the locker room was somber. It was disappointing. It was
like what the hell. And then afterward, a couple of
(19:15):
the owners GM, you know, we get together for drinks
and we're talking and then the coach shows up and
he was a little defensive after he got his ass
kick five nothing, and he was like not wanting to talk,
didn't want to explain anything. He was just like, yeah, whatever.
(19:37):
And it was one of those like I'm sitting there,
this is I'm kind of new to this stuff, although
I you know, had a couple of experiences with the
New Zealand basketball team. But it's like, wait a minute,
this is not how someone should be reacting after a
five nothing loss. Like he was fired within a week.
And I just wonder if Robert Salah had been like
(20:03):
play caated his quarterback a little bit more gone after
him the back and forth about the cadence the whole
Egypt trip, if he had done less of that publicly,
would he still be there, or maybe he doesn't want
to be there. I mean, I can't imagine he doesn't
want to be a head coach in the NFL. But
do you think you want to work with Aaron Rodgers?
I don't even know if the Jets' job is a
(20:24):
good one. Guys like seeing Rogers ran off McCarthy, he
ran off Sala. Rogers has two playoff wins in the
last six years. He also has run off two coaches midseason.
What does that tell you? I don't know how good
of a job this is. I'm gonna be honest, and
Jacksonville opens up, what would you rather do coach Trevor
Lawrence or coach Aaron Rodgers for a year and deal
(20:44):
with his crap? I think that's a fair question. I
don't know that this is a good job because of
Aaron Rodgers, and now it just feels like we're back
on the hamster wheel and starting all over again, and
it sucks. Guys. Maybe I'll take I'll take you know,
opinions on it, whether or not I should add a
(21:04):
new team to root for and maybe dial back my
Jets them. But it's just another day in paradise for
the new York Football Jets just a really bad franchise
in a bad place right now. So it's possible that
I win the lottery, I make a lot of money,
and then I'm able to buy the Jets, but that
doesn't seem to be on the horizon. We're back tomorrow.
(21:27):
Talk to you then.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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