Locker-Room Issues; Deeper than Football

When Darrelle Revis spoke about the issues with the Jets toward the end of the season, he made a couple of interesting points that, I think, should stand out to Jet fans.

Revis spoke with NFL Network on Thursday during AFC Pro Bowl practice. He further proved Rex Ryan’s previous statement from a few weeks ago; that he wasn’t in sync with the players in his locker room. But Revis suggested that perhaps it wasn’t entirely coach’s fault. Perhaps some of the blame for that should be lifted off of Ryan’s shoulders.

Revis building a playground at the Pro Bowl this week

It seems to me, that according to Revis, Ryan was there for his team. He didn’t change the way he was communicating with his players, he didn’t stop his role as ‘the players coach’; a role he’s played so well in the past. It didn’t work this time though. Ryan tried, but to no avail.

If there were really personal and serious issues in the locker room, I could only imagine how hard it was for an ‘in the dark’ coach to try to create a positive vibe for his team. So I’m giving him some credit.

Maybe all the guarantees and promises and assurances of regular season and super bowl wins were not only meant to give the fans confidence, but the players as well.

Maybe there were simply just some much deeper issues behind the 8-8 record that the Jets put up this season.

Maybe some of those issues were more important than football, and maybe that should be considered.

For now, one can only hope that in the off-season, the organization takes care of their technical issues; the coaching staff, the draft, all the way into training camp. And at the same time, hope that the mental hurdles are overcome as well.