According to a report, insiders are dishing on New York Jets Owner Woody Johnson and saying that he made strange and indefensible decisions for the team, including nixing a trade for receiver Jerry Jeudy because his rating in the Madden video game wasn’t high enough.
According to the claims, when Jeudy was considered for a possible trade in the previous offseason, Johnson nixed the deal with the Broncos. So, Jeudy ended up with the Cleveland Browns instead of heading to the Jets.
Jeudy has since gone on to one of his best years in the league and achieved 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his career, TMZ reported.
But now it is being reported that Johnson rejected the trade based at least partly on the opinions of his teenage sons, Brick and Jack, who apparently told their father that Jeudy didn’t have a very high rating in the Madden NFL 24 game stats.
The report also states that Johnson didn’t care what his professional football consultants and executives told him because he gave the opinions of his teen sons equal weight when making football decisions.
“Johnson’s reference to Jeudy’s Madden rating was, to some in the Jets’ organization, a sign of Brick and Jack’s influence,” The Athletic reported.
Johnson reportedly cited low Madden scores for players other than Jeudy. The insiders say he also used the same logic in assessing a trade for free-agent guard John Simpson.
“Another example came when Johnson pushed back on signing free-agent guard John Simpson due to a lackluster ‘awareness’ rating in Madden. The Jets signed Simpson anyway, and he has had a solid season: Pro Football Focus currently has him graded as the eighth-best guard in the NFL,” The Athletic added.
A spokesman for the Jets is denying this insider report, though.
“It’s really sad that an adult would use a misleading anecdote about teenagers to make their father look bad,” the spokesperson said. “It’s ridiculous, quite honestly, the idea that this was used to influence the opinion of experienced executives. (The sons) have no roles in the organization. It’s completely ridiculous to suggest that any outside info is intended to replace the opinions of (Woody Johnson’s) staff,” Bleacher Report said.
For his part, Jerry Jeudy was so shocked by the news that he said he didn’t even believe it.
“To be honest, I don’t believe it. I think that’s fake news, for real,” Jeudy said. “Why would somebody look at Madden rating. Be real. I don’t think that real, but, you know, it’s funny.”
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