Hiring Parcells: Another Jet blunder

The New York Jets have done it again. The NFL's equivalent to the Bad News Bears are the target of Lady Luck's scorn once again

On Monday the worst excuse for a football team in the NFL traded away four draft choices, including its first-round pick in 1999, for a coach.

Just when it seems the Jets can't make any more bad decisions, they set a new precedent in the bonehead department.

The Jets front office of Moe, Larry and Leon "Curly" Hess have sold its future to the New England Patriots for the services of Bill Parcells next season.

In the hype before the Super Bowl, it was said many times what a great coach Parcells is. The many articles written about him also talked of how much he loved a challenge. We will now get to find out if this is true.

The people I feel sorry for are the faithful Jets fans. I am in no way, shape or form a Jets fan, but growing up in New Jersey, I have seen the pain these poor people who call themselves Jets fans have endured. They have no control over what the front office does.

Every year Jets fans endure this ritual of getting their hopes up with visions of Super Bowl III dancing in their heads -- Joe Namath running off the field, one finger held high. Each preseason these fans truly believe this can happen again, then they are brought back to a harsh reality. Year in and year out, the Jets consistently have stunk up East Rutherford, N.J., more than it stinks already.

A friend from home is one of these poor saps. Every August he could be heard saying, "This is the year. I've been waiting since I was this big (putting hand somewhere around knee level) for this."

Then the Jets would take the field for yet another 3-13 or 4-12 season.

Now that they are allowed to keep the 1997 No. 1 pick, it is almost a sure thing they will draft the wrong person. Many people believe they'll draft Ohio State's Orlando Pace or Tennessee's Peyton Manning. Not me. I think they will find some player from a county college in Idaho to draft first.

The Jets history in the draft has to be the darkest chapter in their franchise history. Year after year, the Kelly-Green clad front office messes up this element of NFL life. They haven't drafted a household name since 1971, when they picked John Riggins. Since drafting The Diesel, they have consistently blown it. The jury is still out on Keyshawn Johnson.

In 1983, the year that spawned the greatest quarterback class of all time, they drafted Ken O'Brien instead of Dan Marino. Whoops.

How about 1985, when they drafted Al Toon instead of Jerry Rice? Or 1990 when they took Penn State's Blair Thomas instead of some guy named Emmitt?

If the draft chapter is the darkest, the coaching chapter is a close second. Over the past few years the Jets have hired one loser after another with one exception, Pete Carroll. But they decided to fire him after one 6-10 season. Ironically, Carroll is taking Parcells' place in New England.

Looking back over the illustrious history of the Jets, one will find that not one of the 12 men who has strolled the sidelines for the green machine has a winning record with the Jets. Hey Leon, maybe it's not the coach.

A few of the Jets coaches have gone on to become good coaches elsewhere. Lou Holtz, despite a 3-10 record as Jets coach, went on to be a great coach at Notre Dame. Bruce Coslet is now trying to make people forget his days with the Jets as the head man of the Cincinnati Bengals. Even Joe Walton is doing well as a small-time college coach.

This latest coaching episode just reassures the team and its fans something they've known for a long time: It isn't easy being green.