There must have been something in the air this weekend when it came to profiles of local team owners. Incoming Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov got more ink than the latest twist in Sandra Bullock's marriage and Woody Johnson was the subject of a long profile in the Sunday Times.
Greg Bishop spoke to the Jets owner about football, his family and the fact that he rides a scooter around New York City. By the time it was done, it was clear that you'd never hear the words Woody Johnson and "reclusive billionaire" in the same sentence unless there was "is not a" in between them.
One of the things that Johnson made clear in the profile and an accompanying Q. and A. is that his team won't be reclusive either. He wants players entering the field without helmets to make them more accesible and he wants a lot of media access because he's not into the idea of the team's dealings being like "the secret to Coke or whatever." That's very different than the way most of the NFL thinks about these issues and there are a few reasons for the different approach.
The first is clearly Johnson's own evolution as a person. It's clear from Johnson's life story that it takes him a while to find a comfort zone in whatever he's doing. That was the case for owning a football team and he appears to have gained comfort as he enters his second decade at the helm. Another reason is clearly Rex Ryan, whose influence permeates everything that this team does and there's the lingering need to sell PSLs to the new stadium as quickly as possible.
The final reason, one that probably ties all the others together, is the pecking order of New York's football teams. The Jets hate the idea that they fall behind the Giants, but facts are facts and the Giants are the top dog in the region. Like any business that is trying to take on an established leader in their industry, the Jets have to make choices that differentiate themselves in a meaningful way because they can't compete with a brand that is already so well established.
They're doing an awfully good job of it. The Jets have made bolder personnel moves over the last few seasons, they've spent more time making themselves a niche on the back pages and they've made it very clear that they see themselves as brasher, younger and fresher than the Giants. It's not a better way of doing business, per se, but it is a different way of business and it has gone a long way toward erasing the stigma of being the poor stepbrother in the New York football world.
Plenty of people will argue that it is all style and no substance. They wouldn't be wrong, unless they were claiming that style doesn't matter at all. It doesn't make up for winning, of course, but there's only so much control an owner can have over that part of things. Image, on the other hand, is right in Johnson's wheelhouse and he's made a very clear choice about what he wants the Jets to represent in New York.
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Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
