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Namath: "Peyton Manning Won't be Interested in Joining the Jets"


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Joe Namath says locker room unrest will keep Peyton Manning from joining Jets

Published: Thursday, March 08, 2012, 4:15 PM Updated: Thursday, March 08, 2012, 4:16 PM

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10661392-large.jpgAssociated PressJoe Namath feels unrest in the Jets locker room will dissuade Peyton Manning from joining the team.

Peyton Manning wouldn’t be interested in joining the Jets with their current roster and locker-room dysfunction, Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath said today.

“The Jets have to get things together on their own turf before someone with his background would be interested in coming,” Namath, 68, who led the Jets to their only Super Bowl title, told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview from his Florida home.

Manning, 35, was released Wednesday by the Indianapolis Colts after 11 Pro Bowl appearances, four league Most Valuable Player awards and a Super Bowl title following the 2006 season. The Jets finished 8-8 in 2011, the end of the season marred by locker-room controversy, including verbal altercations between quarterback Mark Sanchez and receiver Santonio Holmes.

Running back LaDainian Tomlinson, a free agent after two years in New York, told the NFL Network Wednesday that Manning could help the Jets win. He called the team’s locker-room issues last season the worst he’d seen in his 11-year National Football League career.

Jets spokesman Bruce Speight didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Namath’s statement or the team’s interest in Manning.

Namath led the American Football League in passing in 1966 and 1967, and became a national celebrity after he delivered on his prediction that the Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl. He retired after the 1977 season and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

Namath said he didn’t expect the Jets to sign Manning, and that Sanchez, who will enter his fourth NFL season, has the ability and work ethic to be the team’s quarterback of the future. The Reno, Nevada-based Cal Neva sports book gives the Jets a 9.5 percent chance of signing Manning. The Arizona Cardinals are favorites with a 19 percent chance, followed by the Miami Dolphins at 16.5 percent.

Manning’s release Wednesday by the Colts made him one of the most desirable free agents in NFL history. He won 141 games in Indianapolis, where he helped the Colts become one of the league’s elite teams with a $720 million stadium.

While Manning turns 36 on March 24 and is working his way back from at least three operations on his neck that kept him sidelined for all of last season, he said he has no plans to retire and is excited to play again.

By cutting Manning, the Colts avoided having to pay him a $28 million bonus today. The team has said it will select Stanford University quarterback Andrew Luck with the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft.

Namath said that with Manning’s absence last year, the bonus and Luck’s availability, he wasn’t surprised the quarterback was released.

“Your heart might be in one place, but business is business,” he said. “The No. 1 question is, ‘Is he going to be satisfied with the strength in his throwing arm?’”

Namath changed teams late in his career. In 1977, at age 33, he was waived by the Jets and signed with the Los Angeles Rams, where he played four games in one season.

Namath started eight games for the Jets in 1976, and said today that he didn’t think he would have regained the starter’s spot and wanted to play with a contender. He said the process of leaving New York was “excruciating,” and that he struggled to adjust to the new life and team in Los Angeles.

“What was difficult for me, that I didn’t anticipate, was how much all the newness could get in the way and be a distraction,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared for that feeling. The new faces, new places, new system.”

Namath said Manning’s attention to detail and preparation may allow him to adjust faster to a new team.

“I think he’ll handle it much better than I did,” Namath said.

Namath said if he could do it again, he would have stayed in New York. Due to knee and hamstring injuries, he found out in Los Angeles that he was no longer physically able to play to his satisfaction.

“I didn’t know that when I made the decision to make the move,” Namath said. “Knowing that I wasn’t up to par physically, I wouldn’t have left the Jets, absolutely not.”

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What's funny about some of you guys is you will crap all over what Namath says, however LT was in the locker room and said it was the worst he has seen in his 11 years but nobody cares...I guess the inmates are in control now. Give me a ****en break!

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WTF is he a fan of the team or trying to make it worse. And as far as the locker room as soon as Manning steps into the problems are over. LT I can care what he says he's meaningless to the Jets franchise but Joe should know better. I've really lost a lot of respect for him in the last few years. He needs to get off his soap box and crawl into a hole.

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All I'm saying is that for a guy that has not done anything football related since he was in a Rams uniform, he sure is good at the criticism. Yet he's not a JOURNALIST, what the hell is he?

He's a glorifiied Jet fan but bad mouths them at every turn. Not that his opinion will sway Peyton Manning, but what exactly IS he trying to accomplish here? Because he sure as hell is not HELPING.

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he's been right about most things concerning the jets......yet everyone keeps calling him a stupid drunk who is no longer relevent

+1 everyone looks at this like it's a game of Madden. Ask yourself why would Peyton Manning want the Jets? he's not a Jets fan. He actually kinda had a chance to be a Jet in 1997 and told Parcells to go scratch.

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+1 everyone looks at this like it's a game of Madden. Ask yourself why would Peyton Manning want the Jets? he's not a Jets fan. He actually kinda had a chance to be a Jet in 1997 and told Parcells to go scratch.

Never fails. Like taxes and death

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+1 everyone looks at this like it's a game of Madden. Ask yourself why would Peyton Manning want the Jets? he's not a Jets fan. He actually kinda had a chance to be a Jet in 1997 and told Parcells to go scratch.

Does that mean Joe should be going out and telling everyone again how ****ed up the jets team is? Is it really helping? He needs to stfu and go find a dark corner in a pub.

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STFU you stupid drunk idiot. Nobody gives a **** about you anymore.

I still love me some Joe. Truth is Peyton probably won;t be a Jet. I'm sure the crap from last season plays a part in that. I would love to get hammered with JOe and talk about how bad the Jets are. I do it here all the time with you guys and Joe is way cooler than even you.

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I still love me some Joe. Truth is Peyton probably won;t be a Jet. I'm sure the crap from last season plays a part in that. I would love to get hammered with JOe and talk about how bad the Jets are. I do it here all the time with you guys and Joe is way cooler than even you.

Tom Moore likely told Peyton all he wants to know.

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I love the speculation amongst all the reporters and commentators. How they reek of disdain at the thought of money actually playing any sort of part in his decision. No no, Wade's sending him tweets and Dungy doesn't think he wants to make Eli all antsy in his pantsy and Wayne Hunter sucks..those are much more reasonable than a professional athlete chasing Benjamins. Dude's already said he's willing to play on a heavily incentive laden deal; so laden that bitch up.

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Yeah, Joe really should shut up about the Jets and football.

So he transformed the way the game is played, transformed QB play and technique, brought about the transformation of the NFL into it's modern form and has been completely right about the things he said about the Jets lately. But that doesn't mean Jets fans have to actually listen to him.

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Truth is doesn't matter really. Archie will tell Peyton where to go and that will be that.

There's some truth to this, but it's free agency, not Oprah. You put an offer on the table that would cause any father in his right mind to tell his son that he's a ******* moron to turn down.

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+1 everyone looks at this like it's a game of Madden. Ask yourself why would Peyton Manning want the Jets? he's not a Jets fan. He actually kinda had a chance to be a Jet in 1997 and told Parcells to go scratch.

Total BS

He was only going to come out early if Parcells would commit to not trading the pick. He wanted to play for the Jets and Parcells

Did Parcells fumble ball in dealing with Manning?

On the NFL

March 09, 1997|By Vito Stellino | Vito Stellino,SUN STAFF

Bill Parcells, the coach, may have trouble winning for Bill Parcells, the general manager.

That's because Parcells didn't come off as a shrewd operator in the Peyton Manning affair, the first major situation he faced since joining the New York Jets.

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When Manning's father, Archie, recently called Parcells, they played a version of don't ask-don't tell. Manning was too polite to ask Parcells if he would draft his son and keep him.

"There was an indication they really liked Peyton, and he seemed certain that Peyton would be the first pick, but I wasn't inclined to ask him in February if he was definitely going to take Peyton," Archie Manning said.

The surprising thing is that Parcells didn't tell him that he'd pick Manning and keep him.

"Archie called me one time, but it never got to a situation where we got to discussing it. I've known Archie quite a while. We spoke one time and that was it. I never really got into it too much about Peyton. We just talked about certain situations.

"I had no sense of what he was going to do and I wasn't trying to find out," Parcells said.

Parcells probably didn't want to promise Manning that he wouldn't trade him in case he got a blockbuster offer. But he risked Manning's not coming out, and that's what happened.

Manning obviously figured if there was a chance he'd get traded somewhere he didn't want to go, he'd stay in school and take his chances next year.

Of course, there's no guarantee Manning would have come out even if Parcells had promised not to trade him. But it was strange for Parcells not to even make a pitch for him.

"Quite frankly, I hadn't given it too much thought," Parcells said. "I'm too busy trying solve some of the other problems I have here right now."

It's hard to imagine what's more important than a shot at the decade's best quarterback prospect. It's not as if this draft is loaded with prospects. The next highest-rated player is left tackle Orlando Pace, but the last time an offensive lineman was taken with the first selection was in 1968, when the Minnesota Vikings picked Ron Yary.

Since Parcells likes defensive players, he may even bypass Pace -- who will work out for scouts Friday -- for Southern Cal defensive tackle Darrell Russell.

There's always the chance Parcells may get one more chance at Manning.

When Archie Manning called Parcells back last week to tell him Peyton was staying in school, Parcells told him, "Heck, we may have a chance at him next year."

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There's some truth to this, but it's free agency, not Oprah. You put an offer on the table that would cause any father in his right mind to tell his son that he's a ******* moron to turn down.

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

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