Let this serve as a reminder of just how difficult a job it is to be the general manager of a football team. Joe Douglas was fired as GM of the Jets on Nov. 19, two days after their latest on-field calamity — a dispiriting 28-27 loss to the Colts at MetLife Stadium.
Douglas’ departure was little lamented by the Jets’ rank-and-file, and in fact seemed inevitable after the unceremonious sacking of coach Robert Saleh after five weeks. Sometimes you can scare up a pretty good debate about the fate of a GM, because unless a guy totally Gettlemans the job, there’s a lot of gray area.
There seemed little of that with Douglas, who was hired thanks to a deep pedigree of winning learned in Philadelphia and was never quite able to translate that 101 miles northeast in Florham Park.
This Sunday was supposed to be an intriguing inter-conference game for the Jets, the Seahawks coming to MetLife for an early 1 o’clock kickoff, and we all know how much West Coast teams enjoy games that start when their bodies insist it’s 10 in the morning.
