It hasn’t been the best couple of weeks for the public image of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.
One week after Johnson came under fire for publicly bashing Jets quarterback Justin Fields, former Jets quarterback Jordan Travis revealed some startling comments Johnson made to him during his time with the team.
Speaking on his “Travis Take Two” podcast, the 25-year-old former quarterback spoke on his experiences with Johnson in the wake of his comments about Fields.
“I got to tell you, that guy, no disrespect, there was things that were said to me—not obviously to that point [about Fields], because I never got on the field to play—but about my leg. Like, just slick comments,” Travis said of Johnson. “I don’t know if he was trying to be slick about it, or you know how some older people, they just kind of say whatever comes to their mind.
“It kind of made me feel a certain type of way. I told you about a few of them: ‘You ever gonna get healthy?’ I’m just like, damn. Not like, ‘How you feeling?’ Never. Never that. It was always comments like that. That kind of upset me, but it kind of rolled over my head, but it makes sense [now].”
Travis, 25, was selected by the Jets in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft. He was coming off a severe leg injury suffered at Florida State in November 2023, which was expected to sideline him for most or all of his rookie season.
Travis was unable to suit up in any capacity during the 2024 season. The Jets placed him on the reserve/non-football injury list ahead of the regular season as he continued rehabbing.
In April 2025, Travis announced that his rehab was unsuccessful and he had been medically advised to retire from football.
It’s heartbreaking to see a young athlete’s career end due to injury. To hear that the Jets’ owner was poking fun at Travis’ injury instead of offering support is disappointing, albeit unsurprising.