June 16, 2010 – The New York Jets are the talk of New York ever since getting to the AFC championship. Their foghorn coach Rex Ryan has a lot to do with that. The ample NY media assembles and he keeps lobbing great stuff to them. This was the same guy that gave them words to the effect that the Jets were out of it after a loss in game 14 against Atlanta. And then they rolled off two wins with the playoff-bound Colts and Bengals laying down, some competitors dropping games and the Jets became a wild card. They rolled past Cincinnati and San Diego and dropped 30-17 to the Super Bowl-bound Colts.

Ryan chose to flaunt the success at every turn in his quest to wrestle “top team in NY” honors from the Giants. He boasted. He made appearances. He pulled his shirt off which may have convinced him to go for the lap band surgery. He called Darrelle Revis the best and promoted a cute nickname, “Revis Island” as a place opposing QBs did not want to go. He talked up rookie QB Mark Sanchez. Most importantly he talked Super Bowl in 2010-11. Why not? He had luckily come one step away in his first year as coach. Only 24 unanswered points to the Colts were the difference from being in the big enchilada.

Ryan cast a wide shadow over the media as the off-season chatter began. He inserted the Jets at every juncture when talk centered around the NFL’s elite. Why not? They had a young quarterback, an emerging running game, a stout offensive line and receivers that boasted Braylon Edwards with a full year of Jet prep, even though he’s been dropping balls ever since his break out season in Cleveland two years ago. Their defense ranked in the top of the league and that defensive backfield was something to behold. The outspoken Bart Scott at linebacker was the leader of the defense and Ryan even touted former first round bust Vernon Gholston as a factor in 2010.

They were mouthy, full of characters and from New York. How long would it take HBO’s “Hard Knocks” to invite them in? Not long. You see HBO pays the Jets to intrude their cameras. To the Jets, it’s just business.

The defense would get Kris Jenkins back and had the best backfield imaginable with “Revis Island” being a place passes went to die. They added LaDainian Tomlinson, future Hall of Famer, now running downhill in the bad sense of that expression. They added an elite corner to compliment Revis in Antonio Cromartie, a primo cover man with a recent history of getting beat, not to mention an off-field image problem surrounding his attitude, law run-ins and who knows how many children out of wedlock. Add to that Jason Taylor, once an NFL defensive player of the year, an archrival Jet-hater for the arch-rival Dolphins, who danced with the stars and has since danced with offensive linemen in Washington and back with Miami, with little of his six-time pro bowl sacking flavor.

The Jets also used their first draft choice on Kyle Wilson a New Jersey-bred cornerback out of Boise State to bolster an already strong secondary. The additions, according to Ryan at every turn, are the difference between watching and playing in the Super Bowl.

But there’s another side of the Jets that’s getting little play. It started last year when running back Leon Washington, a Jets scouting find, proved to be a difference maker in their change-of-pace backfield along with Thomas Jones, their leading rusher. Because Washington came from nowhere, he didn’t have any salary leverage and the Jets began to promote an image of cheapness by not paying Washington what he was worth, but what they could according to the rules. There was no loyalty or reward for an unexpected elite performance, just business. It started a trend.

As the Jets and their owner, Johnson & Johnson heir Woody Johnson, promoted class and being on the same level as the Giants, the Jets went full bore in engaging in the same kind of penny pinching that they showed Leon Washington. It should be noted here that Washington played for the Jets in 2009 and delivered on the same scale until he suffered a compound fracture of his leg. It was as though the Jets were smart to underpay him, not that one of their own gave his leg for the team. Washington is now a free-agent signee with the Seattle Seahwaks and reports of his recovery are positive.

Next was a purge of leading rusher Thomas Jones and All Pro guard Alan Faneca, most likely the two reasons the Jets will not come anywhere close in 2010 to their 2009 success. Defensive backs Lito Shepard and Kerry Rhodes, expensive, former pro bowlers, gone. Just business. It saved money and Rex says they could do without them.

Moving into the New Meadowlands Stadium is another sore spot. Longtime season ticket holders have been forced to pay for public seat licenses for their seats, before they pay for the cost of the ticket for the seats. Last week, in an embarrassing back down, the Jets reduced PSLs as much as 50% because, unlike the Giants, they hadn’t sold over 20,000 of them. A new stadium, a Super Bowl team, all the Rex Ryan hot air and the Jets can’t get their fanbase fired up? J-E-T-S, Jets-Jets-Jets!

The story continues as key players Darrelle Revis, Nick Mangold, David Harris and D’Brickashaw Ferguson, three of them pro bowlers, are holding out and the Jets brass MO still prevails. They are cheap and classless and all the good will Rex Ryan can blow won’t change that. A new stadium, a Super Bowl hosting in 2014, a sniff at being part of the NFL elite and the Jets can’t get past “it’s just business.”