LOOK: Jets using 0-16 NFL media preseason predictions as motivation to win games
The Jets are probably not going to win the Super Bowl in 2017. In fact, most people believed the Jets were more likely to go winless than to make the playoffs, with multiple people at multiple publications predicting the Jets would ultimately end up finishing the season 0-16.
The Jets are using those predictions as motivation too, with the team actually printing out photos of a prognostication and sticking it around the locker room.
When every #Jets player walked in the locker room this morning, they found this note on their stool. The story: https://t.co/Vzh3B7Kzv2 pic.twitter.com/WYFWJAMitb — Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) October 5, 2017
This is about as close as it gets to real life "Major League" (we don't need to see the Jets do what the Indians did with their owner to Woody Johnson, that's for sure).
But you can't blame the Jets for being motivated by this -- if you can find someone who says they thought the Jets were going to be tied with the Patriots for second in the division at 2-2 after four weeks (the Pats jumped them on Thursday obviously) then, congrats, you found a liar.
They are not a good team, but they are a team of professional football players. They weren't just going to tank the season, even if that's what ownership/management is OK with.
The insults are sticking with them.
"It was all offseason: 'The Jets are going to be 0-16,'" linebacker Jordan Jenkins told Conner Hughes of NJ Advanced Media. "That's pretty much on my mind before every game.
"I looked at [the note), and in my head, I was like, 'Don't worry, I ain't forgot what the heck nobody said.' I still remember all that kind of stuff. I don't need any reminder in the slightest."
Tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins said that he pinned the picture the team gave him up on the wall, and defensive end Kony Ealy said he was "disgusted" by any member of the media who would predict the Jets might not win a game.
Unfortunately for Ealy, part of this business is just making bad predictions. Credit the Jets for taking it as motivation and turning it to two more wins than a lot of people thought they would have at this point.
The Jets are going for a three-game win streak on Sunday, and that is an actual thing that is happening. The NFL remains completely unpredictable.