On Sunday afternoon, Jets safety Kerry Rhodes created a stampede of people to his Twitter account when he tweeted that there was a "big announcement coming soon." Since the Jets are a team desperately in need of a receiver at the same time when the talented Brandon Marshall is being mentioned in trade rumors, several Jet fan followers of Rhodes asked if that was the big announcement.
He toyed with fans for a while, once going so far as to say that the trade may happen before saying that the big announcement had nothing to do with Marshall. That jives with a report in the Daily News that says the Jets are "forgetting Brandon Marshall," presumably to focus on their vampire musical. That doesn't mean it won't be some kind of player news. Maybe the signing of a different veteran wide receiver, like Marvin Harrison or Matt Jones, or some kind of trade that we didn't see coming. Or Leon Washington's new contract. Or something having to do with the football team, at least/
Rhodes didn't offer any other hints, before finally leaving things by saying that the announcement would be made at 1 p.m. on Tuesday and a final note to remind "everyone the news will b mad 2morrow and if you really are a JET fan you will appreciate the news!"
There's a reason that Jet is in all capital letters, and it's because there's an actual jet involved in the announcement. Late on Monday night, the Jets sent out a press release that invited media members to JFK Airport at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon to hear about a new partnership between the team and JetBlue. That's 15 minutes later than Rhodes said, but it seems unlikely that the Jets would try to steal their own thunder by jamming two big announcements back to back like that.
The guess here is that JetBlue will have a JetGangGreen decked out in Jets colors, maybe with a mural of a player or two on the side, ready to be unveiled on Tuesday afternoon. If they really go the extra mile they'll have set the plane up to fly incredibly smoothly for the first two-thirds of the flight before encountering severe, horrifying turbulence and then crashing upon arrival at the destination. It would be an expensive and, likely, deadly tragedy, but it would do a pretty good job of simulating a Jets season.
A Jets jet is pretty cool, but the whole event will certainly be a letdown to Jets fans who care more about the team on the field than their marketing partnerships off of it. That letdown is one that people should probably get used to more as teams and companies become more savvy about ways to use Twitter to build buzz for things before they announce them. It's a great communication tool that has offered a new side of athletes like Rhodes, but it will probably prove to be even more powerful as a marketing tool.
Rhodes played good soldier for the team here, hopefully they thank him for it, but his followers are probably going to be a bit more skeptical about taking him at his word going forward.
Sports
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.
