New York Jets head coach Adam Gase is making the smart decision by not addressing the Jamal Adams controversy publicly.
The New York Jets season has been so crazy that even when they do nothing, drama seems to follow them. The team didn’t trade star safety Jamal Adams prior to Tuesday’s deadline. However, he’s angry that they even listened to offers for him. This stems partially from the fact that he was told by his agent that he was being shopped. General manager Joe Douglas claims he merely answered calls, and never shopped him.
The controversy has made the rounds, with media members calling the team incompetent for their handling of the situation. Former players have additionally expressed the opinion that Douglas was just doing his job.
Through it all, there’s one man who isn’t interested in joining the fray. That individual is none other than head coach Adam Gase.
“Anything as far as what’s happened in the past week, anything that we’ve been dealing with, will be handled internally,” Gase told reporters, per Kristian Dyer of Sports Illustrated Jets Maven. “Really that’s how we’re going to handle things.”
Gase later made it clear that he was referring to the Adams drama.
The first-year head coach certainly hasn’t been perfect this year, with some calling for him to be fired at the end of the season. Needless to say, his decision to avoid addressing the Adams controversy is the only way that this situation has any hope of ending well.
Right now, it’s clearly a raw time for Adams. The last thing Gase should do is say anything to the media before he, Adams, and Douglas air it out. Nothing good can come of it.
If Gase says the wrong thing, or if he completely laughs off the idea that Adams is upset, it could be the final nail in the coffin. This team needs to tread carefully in order to avoid losing arguably their best player and a team captain.
Adams has always been a player who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and he takes this game very seriously. It’s part of what makes him so good. He has a burning fire to dominate and the fact that he’s a leader of the team clearly means a whole lot to him. After all, not many third-year players are captains and unquestioned leaders of an organization.
These are certainly choppy waters for the Jets. Adams stated Wednesday that he wasn’t ready to talk to Gase or Douglas about the situation yet. But, he also didn’t rule out having a conversation when he’s calmed down about the situation.
He clearly wants to be a Jet. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be this angry that the team was even remotely considering moving him. He even went to the team before the deadline and told them he wants to stay.
It doesn’t look like Adams is ready to move on, but rather somebody who feels deceived. The team needs to deal with this the right way, even if they didn’t lie to him and had no intention of moving him. Perception is often reality, and right now his reality is that he feels misled.
Douglas and Gase can disagree with that perception all they want. But until they sit down with Adams and clear the air, they cannot say anything more to the media than Douglas already has.
Staying mum doesn’t guarantee that this ends the way the team wants it to. However, speaking to the media makes it significantly more likely that it ends poorly.
