Johnson will be assuming his duties essentially as principal owner quite soonGETTY IMAGES
NFL Jets Owner Woody Johnson is "expected to resume his duties" as the team’s chief decision-maker "shortly after returning from London" following his four-year stint as U.S. Ambassador to the U.K, according to Bob Glauber of NEWSDAY. Jets Chair & CEO Christopher Johnson, who has been filling that role, said of his elder brother Woody's return, "He will be assuming his duties essentially as principal owner quite soon. He will be chairman. I’m going to be vice chairman." Glauber notes Christopher "will retain a significant role in the day-to-day operations." But Christopher said of Woody, "All of the final decisions will be his." Christopher added that there "will be a change to the front-office structure" as it relates to GM Joe Douglas and newly hired coach Robert Saleh. He explained, "Joe will report to me (and Woody Johnson) and Robert will report to Joe. It seems a clean and simple way to do things, but not much really changes." Glauber reports the NFL does "not plan to further scrutinize allegations that surfaced last year about Woody Johnson making racist and sexist remarks to staff members during his time as ambassador" (NEWSDAY, 1/22).
HIS GUYS IN CHARGE: In N.Y., Mark Cannizzaro reports Douglas and Jets President Hymie Elhai "had their input" in the team's decision to hire Saleh last week, but "ultimately Saleh was Christopher Johnson’s hire." It represented the younger Johnson's "last act as the man in charge." Cannizzaro: "But if Saleh is who the Jets believe he is, then his hiring will end up being the lasting legacy of Christopher Johnson’s four-year run calling the shots for the team and erase the mistake he made in hiring Adam Gase two years ago." Saleh succeeding would "forever change the narrative for Christopher Johnson" (N.Y. POST, 1/22). In N.Y., Pat Leonard notes Woody Johnson’s return to the Jets "was expected" given the results of the U.S. presidential election. But the late timing means that both Douglas and Saleh "now will be working for a chairman who was not involved in their hiring." That is "unusual, and it injects a level of unknown into the immediate and long-term of what the Jets’ vision is, what it will be, and whether it can be executed with everyone pulling in the same direction" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/22).
