Woody Johnson, MAGA supergenius
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It’s easy to see why Trump likes having Woody Johnson around — always good to have a failson who has failed particularly hard there for comparison:
Woody Johnson decided to do his own research.
The New York Jets’ owner was at his house in Palm Beach, Fla., [natch –ed.] last February, discussing potential offseason acquisitions with team decision-makers as they watched game tape. Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, a former Denver Broncos first-round pick, flashed on the screen. Jets general manager Joe Douglas expressed interest, according to someone familiar with the meeting. Johnson took out his phone and started typing.
A few weeks later, Douglas and his Broncos counterpart, George Paton, were deep in negotiations for a trade that would have sent Jeudy to the Jets and given future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers another potential playmaker. The Broncos felt a deal was near. Then, abruptly, it all fell apart. In Denver’s executive offices, they couldn’t believe the reason why.
Douglas told the Broncos that Johnson didn’t want to make the trade because the owner felt Jeudy’s player rating in “Madden NFL,” the popular video game, wasn’t high enough, according to multiple league sources. The Broncos ultimately traded the receiver to the Cleveland Browns. Last Sunday, Jeudy crossed the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the first time in his career.
Tons more great material in the story. Perhaps my other favorite story is how Woody demanded to be referred to by his title he purchased from Trump even after his term ended:
Ahead of the Jets-Giants preseason finale at MetLife Stadium in 2019, an administrative assistant popped into the team’s coaching offices to make an announcement to then-head coach Adam Gase and his staff. Woody Johnson, then serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom in the Trump administration, was temporarily returning from London. The assistant said everyone should refer to Johnson as “Mr. Ambassador.”
That has held true long after Johnson left government and returned to his role as Jets chairman in January 2021, striking a discordant tone among those who believe the organization has long been plagued by mismanagement.
“I guess that’s what you’d call him,” one assistant coach said. “I’d never been around royalty before.”
The Jets having the longest playoff drought in major North American pro sports seems pretty explicable in retrospect. The only mystery is how Woody hasn’t parlayed this combination of ineptitude, wealth and sycophancy into a cabinet position, although I guess that might be too much work.