The New York Knicks have snapped a 53-year championship drought, and it’s all that anybody in the New York City region can talk about.
That hype has seeped into the New York Jets’ facility in Florham Park, New Jersey, where all eyes have shifted to the lone remaining New York City sports franchise with a 50-plus-year championship drought.
On Tuesday, the Jets opened up their mandatory minicamp, with head coach Aaron Glenn and various players speaking to the media. As expected, they were asked about their thoughts on the Knicks’ incredible championship run.
Glenn was most impressed with the Knicks’ “competitive stamina,” which he wants to translate to the Jets.
“Go Knicks. Go Knicks,” Glenn said. “I’ll tell you what, that was beautiful. Here’s the thing that I thought was so beautiful about the way that it operated. Those guys were down in a number of games they’ve played. You think about how they operated in that first quarter, second quarter, then that third quarter, it was a totally different team. You’ve probably heard me say this before, but ‘competitive stamina’. That is something that those men showed throughout that whole series.”
Glenn explained his plan for building the same type of competitive stamina for his own team.
“That’s a real thing. It’s something that I’ve talked to our guys about since Phase 1. That’s something that we’re working on. And the way you do that is, me as a coach, I have to make sure I create that in practice. It’s hard to do it in OTAs because the physical part of it, but once we come to training camp, you can bet your ass that we’re going to work on competitive stamina. Because those Knicks, those guys showed it.”
Running back Breece Hall talked about his exchange with Knicks point guard Tyler Kolek.
“I was just talking to some of my boys, I was like, ‘It gives you positive jealousy.’ … I’m very cool with Mikal [Bridges], Tyler Kolek, a lot of those guys. So, I was just like, bro, that’s so lit. I went to eat wings with Kolek the other day in the city, we were watching UFC fights, and I congratulated them, and I’m just like, I can’t wait to have that feeling. So, definitely positive jealousy, because I want my team to be able to do that as well.”
Starting quarterback Geno Smith talked about the added motivation he took from witnessing the energy of New York sports fans.
“Just seeing the energy of the city, and how the fans are just so happy and excited to have those bragging rights to be the NBA champion, and for that to be at home in New York, I think that’s a special thing to see the energy and just how devoted the fans are to the team and to the city,” Smith said. “It gives us a little bit of added motivation. We’re motivated already, but man, watching those guys win that championship has got to do something to you as a competitor.”
No player on the Jets’ current roster has won a championship. The only player who has even reached the Super Bowl is cornerback Samuel Womack, who was inactive as a member of the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.
Championship experience is not woven into the DNA of the Jets franchise or even the players on their roster. But that wasn’t necessarily the case for the Knicks, either, just a few years ago. As recently as 2019, the Jets (+6000) had substantially better preseason championship odds than the Knicks (+100000).
Perhaps Jets general manager Darren Mougey can lead a similar cultural overhaul to Knicks president Leon Rose. As Mougey continues to operate like a proficient general manager, highlighted by his proactive approach to extensions, he is slowly building optimism that he could be the Jets’ version of Rose.
