The world of sports media is a delicate balance, especially for those who used to play the game they are now covering. Former players must walk a delicate line between providing valuable insight so as to be interesting and entertaining, while not burning bridges and or breaking an unspoken code amongst their former teammates and competitors.
There are some who do it with ease and there are some who haven’t quite figured it out yet. I am not going to name the people I think are in either category, because that is in the eye of the beholder. For context, I used to run auditions for a major sports network and have seen countless former athletes trying to make it in the media world who simply didn’t have it and some who would go on to be stars in the industry.
But occasionally, I do think a former player speaks out of turn and makes a comment that is used to troll a fan base or endear himself to a guest. Recently, on the Ross Tucker podcast, I believe Ross was guilty of the latter.
Ross recently had on former New York Jets’ second-round pick Christian Hackenberg. Hackenberg is a cautionary tale of organizations not being on the same page and will go down as one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history, not just Jets’ history.
The interview was interesting enough with Hackenberg telling his side of why things didn’t work out for him in the NFL, and frankly, I found him to be open, honest, self-aware in the interview. The sports-hate I had for him melted away and I almost felt bad for the guy.
It was a comment made by the interviewer that made my ears perk up rather than a comment by the interviewee. After discussing Hackenberg’s failure with the Jets, Ross has a lame attempt at endearing himself to Hackenberg by trying to insinuate that the Jets are the reason he didn’t succeed in the NFL, and what’s more, that other players try to avoid going to the Jets because of it.
“I'd also say this, there's a reason why certain guys over history have tried to avoid certain organizations, because certain organizations are where you go to usually not have success. Yeah, and we know what some of them are.” Tucker said.
What organizations are you referring to, Ross? You talking about the Detroit Lions who have been a laughingstock for decades? Because I don’t think there is a player in the league that isn’t intrigued by joining that team right now. Are you talking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Ross? Tom Brady decided to join the team in the midst of a 12-season playoff drought and it had (and still have) the lowest winning percentage in NFL history. How about your former team, the Buffalo Bills and their zero championships? Would that be an organization guys avoid?
Speaking of no Super Bowls, all players are trying to avoid playing with C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans, Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals or live in Southern California playing with Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. I mean, those are all organizations where you don’t have success, right?
This is the type of cheap shot that make media the enemies to fan bases. I’m not saying you can’t criticize a team; lord knows I do it enough when it comes to the Jets, but to make fans believe that players avoid organizations in the draft is downright irresponsible. I’m sure there are guys that avoid certain places for whatever reasons they have, but to outlandishly throw out a remark like that is pathetic.
The fact is, that it takes a perfect combination of players and coaches to get over the hump and turn an organization around. The New England Patriots were not the poster-team for stability prior to Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. The Kansas City Chiefs were an afterthought for a long time prior to Andy Reid’s and Patrick Mahomes’ arrivals.
Some organizations get a reputation because of their loud fan bases, their inept ownership or their media coverage. Unfortunately for the Jets, they check all three of those boxes. But as much as I don’t believe Woody Johnson is a good NFL owner, there is no doubt that if Patrick Mahomes hit the free agent market, he would back up the Brinks truck to sign him. And if the Jets ever landed a Mahomes in the draft, he would sign him to a deserving deal.
Ross' intentions were clear, unfortunately for him, he missed the target by a pretty wide margin.
