Jets release Nate Lyles, and another thing
The Jets waived DB Nate Lyles this afternoon. This is what I wrote when they waived him July 22, just before camp:
"Proving once again how tough a business the NFL is, the Jets released safety Nate Lyles, originally signed as an undrafted rookie free agent on May 2. Lyles was one of the feel-good stories of the OTAs and minicamp and he was trying to earn a spot in the league after coming back from what was thought to be a career-ending neck injury in 2005 while at Virginia."
That still holds up I think. The Jets then brought Lyles back on July 31 when they released LB Jerry Mackey. Mike from Manhattan, I expect to hear from you about this.
Speaking of Jets fans (just an awful transition there, I know. We'll move on from this I hope), you guys were called out today by Peter King in his Monday Morning Quarterback column, which is always a must-read.
"I think I don't want to hear what great fans the Jets have. Not for a long time. That crowd Saturday night was a disgrace. At least half the stadium was empty for Favre's debut in a Jets' uniform. I expressed my amazement to a few fellow scribes Saturday night -- emphasizing that N.Y. traded for an all-time-great quarterback, not a broken-down one -- and they gave varying reasons for the poor turnout. Like it's the middle of vacation month for New Yorkers, and it's a preseason game. Horsefeathers. If you really love your team, and you have season tickets, you should have been at that game unless you were in Tibet. Ridiculous."
Like anyone in this business should, I look up to and respect King immensely. But he's way off base here, as are the other media folks who have levied some criticism at fans for this issue. Other than Green Bay, there aren't many cities that have packed houses for preseason games. I'm from Cleveland - as SO many of you keep pointing out - which has a fairly rabid fan base to say the least. But when we covered the Jets there a week and a half ago, Cleveland Browns Stadium, at best, was half-full.
There are plenty of legit reasons not to have gone to the game Saturday - Favre was only going to play two series anyway; why pay for parking and food and other "extras" for a meaningless game that you shouldn't have had to pay full price for anyway; it's New York for crying out loud and there's a few other options for the socially inclined on a Saturday night - but whatever. Bottom line: those who don't have to pay - writers, broadcasters, radio hosts, etc, - to get into these games shouldn't judge the motives or the fan cred of the people who do have to pay.
With that, feel free to continue the rather odd discussion some of you have going on in the comments section of my previous post. Mr. Green T, you've retired the trophy. What for, I have no idea yet but I'll think of something.
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Comments (37)
I sent an email to Peter in which I stated he, as a native Jersey-ite, should shut the F up. The state of NJ makes getting in an out of the stadium a truly miserable experience, bordering on torture. There have been times when it has taken me 4 1/2 hours to get home which is about 2 miles east of Hofstra. I should be commended, by Peter King in his national forum, not only for even thinking about going, but for being a season ticket holder to that abomination.
I ended my email by telling Mr. King that he should move to Boston, since that is plainly where his loyalties lie.
Off-base is far too kind a term.
This from a man who, as rumors have it, bathes in a tub full of baked beans while using his Tom Brady vibrating loofah to scrape off the overfed skin cells that periodically commit suicide just to get away from gravity defying posterior. Whew! Peter King is a closet Patriots fan who has always had an adversarial relationship with the Jets.
A disgrace is when someone of Mr. King's supposed stature rails against hard working schlubs who have to weight their family, not to mention financial obligations, against a game that doesn't count. It's hard enough to "disappear" every Sunday for sixteen weeks, without adding preseason. Maybe King should have used his bully pulpit to rail against the greed of NFL ownership charging fans full price for a glorified scrimmage.
I'm sorry we all didn't drop everything to go bow down at Favre's knees, but we as Jets fans know he hasn't done anything yet. Take us to the promise land, and you can get drunk on national television and try and smooch marginally attractive analysts without a peep from us. Better watch out Boland.
king is a joke and has been for a long time. he was the one who wrote how bad he felt for john mara that he was going to be forced to charge seat licenses to fans so the team could make money. he is a mouthpiece for the league and the owners and has not been a worthwhile read for a long long time. as for not going out to jersey on an august saturday night to watch favre run 10 or so plays--not everyone has to worship #4 the way king does. sad when season ticket holders have more perspective than people who call themselves reporters.
King always recomends movies, I wonder if he would pay to see actors/actresses do readings for movie parts for future blockbuster movies, i don't think so and yet he ridicules fans who are forced to buy tickets at regular season prices to watch tryouts after the first quarter.
Erik, good luck tonight.
Erik, good man. You stand up for your constituents. You make us proud. Mr. Green T, once again, a man among boys.
Erik, Do u think this is over? I bet King apologizes for his critical comments before weeks end. Additionally, King failed to mention that every single seat was paid for, preseason football games are a joke!
Mr Green T I can't stop laughing to type "the overfed skin cells that periodically commit suicide just to get away from gravity defying posterior. "
"DUDE THAT IS PRICELESS"
To Peter King's comments, let him park in one of the outside lots and go through that hassle of going to see a game on a Saturday night. I have heard mike francesa say that about 30-40% of season ticket holders for a Jet game are giant fans who couldn't get season tickets for the giants. Not sure how true that is but I can believe there is a percentage. So Peter King STFU
Erik,
Please don't ever stop being 'ONE OF US'. You are the best!
I'm watching the Browns-Giants game. I see a lot of red empty seats. Mr. King's typing sausages are going to be tired tomorrow with all the indignation he'll be spewing about the attendance. He must have been a oily little hall monitor when he was young, getting special gold stars for taking attendance.
Peter King forgot to take into account that us New Yorkers sometimes have more important things to do...such as provide the financial backbone to the United States of America.
My wife and I were enjoying ourselves in a nice Belgian cafe on 43rd. As game time approached, I seriously considered not boarding the Port Authority bus. I'm not going to judge anyone who decided not to go. You're obligated to buy that crappy product but you're not obligated to go. I hate Huggies, but I was glad he missed that final field goal. Do I really need to watch players headed to the scrap heap duke it out in overtime for something that doesn't matter?
Erik,
I agree with 100% about King's comments.
Thats because your just stupid IRA. Go away
Peter King has gotten to that point in his career where he has become fat and lazy. Throwing out armchair observations is not reporting. It's easy to make a provocative comment and stir up predictable outrage from the people you've offended. Cheap shots don't require any real effort or creativity and they don't add any football knowledge to the discussion. At this point, King is just phoning it in.
It's child's play for him to invent nonsense about poor pre-season attendance than to examine how PSLs are changing the profile of the fans who can afford to attend the games. Or do a real hard-hitting piece about the innumerable ways in which the NFL's country club owners are allowed to abuse their ticket holders. He doesn't want to bite the hand of those who spoon-feed him his stories or alienate them in any way. King is a capitalist tool.
Peter King is to journalism what Eimus is to radio what Al Roker is to black people and what Women are to Men.
Think about it.
That's not the real Ira.
Sorry, Ira. My bad.
Boland, their was a good post on thejetsblog, that I wanted to reiterate. is it possible for the Jets to put Clowney on the PUP list. There's no way in Hell they put this guy on IR. If its not seperated then it should become a 4 to 8 week period.
He's to good to pass up and he's probably our only deep threat. What do you think?
I am a big King fan, but do not give me rhetoric of a half-empty house for a nonsense game. First, as Boland mentions, around the NFL, these games are not well attended. Also, it is not like we knew that Favre would be a Jet. Here is an example, I would have gone to the game, but I planned out a trip to watch the Mets play in beautiful PNC Park in Pittsburgh which was followed by REO Speedwagon(ROCK ON!), then I travelled with my fellow road trip cronies to Cleveland and had a lovely dinner at the Boland household. Just kidding, but I actually went to Cleveland just to see Jacobs Field and the game was on the NFL Network.
Erik, had my friends and I been in a jam, would we have been able to crash at Boland central in Cleveland?
Erik fights for us lowly Jets fans! Keep it up dude! Sure, there are some bad fans out there, but every team has them. And just because a stadium was HALF FULL for a preseason game does not mean we have bad fans. Peter King is truly on my list now. He ticked me off when he ripped Mangini for "tattling" on his former mentor Belichick over the whole Spygate thing, and now this? Just tell him to go move to Boston and be a Pats beat writer. Boo Peter King!
Erik fights for us lowly Jets fans! Keep it up dude! Sure, there are some bad fans out there, but every team has them. And just because a stadium was HALF FULL for a preseason game does not mean we have bad fans. Peter King is truly on my list now. He ticked me off when he ripped Mangini for "tattling" on his former mentor Belichick over the whole Spygate thing, and now this? Just tell him to go move to Boston and be a Pats beat writer. Boo Peter King!
Now that was not me. I agree with Erik's comments about what King said King is dead wrong. GO JETS!!!!
bummer about Nate, hopefully he'll catch on somewhere. thanks for the heads up
Peter King is a sycophantic ass
Thinking about changing my post name to SquishPeterKing, but that pompous ass, would probably take it as a compliment. Sorry we didn't go all out for a PREseason game, jerk. Anyone that has followed this team for as long as most of us have (32 years for me) and still comes back year after year, that my friends is loyalty. That is being a true fan. I don't need peter King telling me that we're disgraceful. Jerk doesn't even know the meaning of loyalty. Was he sitting up in Foxboro 15 years ago when the Patriots were the laughing stock of the league??? Hell NO. May he and Belicheat burn forever. Boland as usual you are the man!!!
Note to Peter King. Baseball season is still in full-force.
Penis King is an embarrassment. There is nothing more pathetic than watching a grown man grovel for an association and access with a pro athlete.(You can do it though erik) I am glad to have BF but am not yet ready to genuflect at his presence just yet. Truthfully he handled the whole retirement/unretirement thing selfishly and I am waiting to see if his HOF resume translates to the Jets.
It still irritates me that I am compelled to pay full price for 2 games in which the starters do a cameo appearance.
This is not Green Bay where the slavish devotion to all things Favre is a way of life.
This is NY/NJ, where kids are returning to school, folks have planned vacations long in advance of the Favre acquistion (hey honey, can we blow off that romantic trip to Aruba so I can go welcome Favre appropriately and not insult P King??), baseball is in pennant race mode, Saratoga is in mid-meet, beautiful beaches abound, summer concert tours are ubiquitous, and of course there are nine thousand other things to do in the Big City, so pardon my friends (that combined shell out big bucks every year for 12 season tickets to a franchise that has won nothing in the last 40 years and who will likely pay absurd PSL's for the priviledge) for honoring their pre-existing commitments rather than dropping everything and travelling 4 hours round trip to see a 38yo future hall of famer run a dozen plays.
Do the 10,000 that showed up for his first practice not count?
How many were at the first NE home pre season game?
Bravo Wayne.
Erik: How come there are no guys on the Flight Crew? Were there any tryouts for men? Isn't this some kind of gender discrimination? Can we bring a class action?
Also, Ira, you are an original. No one can copy you. Besides, imitation is the highest form of flattery. Your cell phone belongs in Canton with all other (too few) memorable Jets artifacts.
Your cell gets more work than the team's Juggs gun and shows how much technology has changed the game. 15 years ago there could never have been an Ira from Staten Island. You would never have gotten out of the house. If I were you I would get an agent and work out a deal to do commercials for Verizon or Sprint. Ira and Zeta-Jones. I can see it now.
I know. This ramble had nothing to do with Peter King. Poetic license..
RC, the flight crew on the big screens helps me forget I just sat in two and a half hours of traffic for seats two rows from the top, and that the pidgeons have better seats than I do.
Adding gay male cheerleaders will offend my beer guzzling, football loving, butt cracking sensibilities and ruin the whole effect.
I've read each and every mmqb for the past 2 years, and I just lost a lot of respect for Peter King. I don't wnat to trek for 4 hours on the LIE, wasting gas, to see 2 series of favre that I could have a better view of on CBS, and free snacks and drinks, lets see king go through what a lot of fans have to do watch their team.
Aggravating travel note of the week: went to see a Jets game, wasted 40$ of gas
Mr Green T wins the post(s) of the week prize - hilarious!
his "typing sausages" was just brilliant
You people continue to impress with your creativity...
As a Giants fan who wanders over here from time to time to lurk some of Boland's folksy down home yarns (and to see whether he has posted anymore Flight Crew pics), I just want to cast my vote to Mr. Green T for Newsday Blogs Comment of the Month.
That Milleresque flame of Peter King was simply a......
"Ting of Beauty".
"skin cells trying to commit suicide"???
"bathing in a tub full of beans"??
Comments and metaphoric analogies like that make me oh so happy to wake up on the green side of the grass each morning.
I salute you Mr. Green T.
Now pardon me whilst I get busy e-mailing all of my Cleveland friends and suggest that the Browns take a long hard look at their pre-season schedule for next year. (At which point, I can be assured of getting replies with "Jeter Sucks" in the subject line).
This Saturday is the litmus test for the season. It is not only the most intense of all the preseason games being the third game ,but added to the, mix bragging rights!
I am not buying into will Farve survive ! The jets will play tough !
If the jets get manhandled on the lines, cant generate a running game, cant get pressure on the qb,and get run all over on the ground, we will be in for a long season. I dont care what Farve looks like. Without dominating on the lines ,that will even not suffice.
I believe the jets will show what they are about Saturday !
In my view ,this game will tell alot !
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Bassett Mike Francessa will be at Jets training camp today (Tuesday, 8/19), so be sure to tune into WFAN at 1PM or catch the simulcast on YES Network. Hat tip to thurdeye for writing about this.
Thanks Erik for getting on King about Saturday's turn out for the Favre era. I have seasons tickets for 24 years and rarely attend summer pre-season scrimages. I have a beach home down the Jersey shore in Brigantine and would rather be there then spend 2 hours in traffic each way, to watch 2 series of plays. The coverage was great on Directv, we tailgated/barbecued at the beach. If King didn't have to cover the game at the Meadowlands, he would be sipping a martini somewhere in the Hamptons.