Woody Johnson taking back seat at Jets training camp a win for everyone
Jets owner Woody Johnson during practice on Monday. Credit: Noah K. Murray
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The first big hits of Jets training camp had just been leveled in a one-on-one, fully padded, tackle-to-the-ground drill of Aaron Glenn’s device on Monday morning. Defensive backs and receivers went tearing at each other, dueling in their speed and agility, while running backs and linebackers smashed into each other like car wrecks.
The sounds of the popping plastic were still echoing in the summer air when a horn blew to signal the end of the competitive period and the players moved on to their next chore.
But there still was one more tackle that had to be attempted.
As he came toward the sideline, Glenn, the head coach, reverted briefly to his days as a cornerback, sized up his prey and delivered the hit.
“He's always trying to tackle me,” Glenn said of Woody Johnson, the team’s owner, Glenn’s boss, and, at that particular moment, the target of his playful thud and wrap. “Every time he sees me, he's trying to tackle me. So I returned the favor today. I got him before he got me.”
Not many of Glenn’s predecessors have been able to do that, get Johnson before getting got, either literally as in the case of this tackle that turned into a warm, smiling embrace, or figuratively in terms of finding a way to stay out in front of Johnson’s ownership style.
Glenn, though, seems to be different. Perhaps more to the point, Johnson seems different, too.
Monday was the most visible the owner has been at the week-old training camp and he spent the morning in his Wimbledon whites, walking casually among the players and executives who were spread around the practice fields putting in their work. He took a few moments to chat with general manager Darren Mougey, had what appeared to be a pleasant conversation with cornerback Sauce Gardner, and, of course, survived his showdown with Glenn, which ended with pats on the back and large grins.
What has become very clear over the last few months, though, is that Johnson has consciously pulled back from the forefront of the organization’s idea-generating process and has become willing to cede that role to his newly hired top employees. So visible? Sure. But obtrusive? No more.
The often publicly embarrassing complaints and criticisms of Johnson by those inside the building — most of which boiled down to the idea that he was too meddlesome in the day-to-day operation of the organization — seem to have sparked a period of self-reflection, growth and change in him. At 78, now a quarter century into his stewardship of the franchise with no hardware to show for it, Johnson has appeared willing to do things few other billionaires ever bother to contemplate. He’s changing his ways. He’s listening.
"I have to look in the mirror, and I have to be a better owner," Johnson said in January when he presided over the news conference to introduce Glenn and Mougey. “I'm trying to be better."
When the Jets earned poor grades for their locker room by the NFLPA, he overhauled the space and delivered a new, state-of-the-art area. When Mougey and Glenn said they wanted to part ways with Aaron Rodgers, the centerpiece of Johnson’s most recent win-quick scheme, he signed off on it. And when his lieutenants determined they wanted Gardner and Garrett Wilson to be the foundational players of their long-term plans, Johnson wrote the checks to sign them to their extensions.
At the end of the physical practice Monday, the players broke off into small position-based groups and Johnson inserted himself into the gathering of running backs.
“He was just telling us that it’s going to start with the run game,” second-year back Braelon Allen said. “You know, pretty much the same message that AG is giving us throughout the entire camp.”
Johnson, in other words, was sticking to the script . . . even though he hadn’t authored this one.
Glenn has known Johnson since Johnson bought the team in 2000 and Glenn was still a starting defensive back for the Jets. They got to know each other more deeply through the interview process that led to Glenn getting this job in January. Glenn said his relationship with Johnson is “outstanding.”
“[There is an] ability to sit and talk with him and really let him know what my feelings are, and he's going to let me know what his feelings are too, which I like,” Glenn said. “I think that's how men operate. You talk about things, you try to improve, and then you make it happen. That's the one thing, I would say, to his credit that he has done. You guys can see it within the building, you guys can see it within the team in terms of us signing these guys. I love everything about it.”
That’s easy to say in late July. The Jets haven’t played a game yet. Glenn has so far been given just about everything he has asked for. And much like his mentor, Bill Parcells, he appears to be one of the few people to come along with an understanding of how to successfully navigate through Johnson’s world.
So far this hands-off version of Johnson is undefeated.
It won’t stay that way. There are going to be bumps. Johnson may revert a bit. His instinct to micro-control the organization, which has often been its downfall, can kick in at any moment.
But as long as Glenn can keep tackling Johnson before Johnson gets a chance to sack him, the Jets may have a better chance of actually succeeding.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
