Newlyweds: Jets' Adam Gase says GM Joe Douglas 'likes my insanity'
No one knows if Joe Douglas and Adam Gase can raise the New York Jets from the walking dead and deliver -- dare we say it? -- their first Super Bowl championship in a half-century. After all, Douglas is a rookie general manager and Gase is a 23-25 coach. But this much can be said with absolute certainty:
They know each other. They respect each other. They wanted to work together.
Hey, these are victories for the Jets, a franchise known for its lousy matchmaking. This time, they've entrusted the team to two men who can skip the "let's-get-acquainted" stage and get down to business immediately. If they fail, it won't be because they're not aligned.wholesale cheap nfl jerseys
Next to Douglas and his family, Gase might have been the happiest guy in the room at Tuesday's news conference. He was borderline giddy, even cracking jokes afterward about his own introductory news conference, which will be immortalized in the Meme Hall of Fame.
"He probably likes my insanity a little bit," Gase said of Douglas.
Listening to Gase go on and on about Douglas, praising his skills as a talent evaluator and people person, you half-expected him to pull a Jerry Maguire by saying, "He completes me." Gase never talked about Mike Maccagnan that way, which is why Maccagnan is the former GM.nfl jerseys wholesale cheap
Gase went into this gig knowing it probably is his last shot as a head coach, and he didn't want to leave his fate in the hands of a stranger with whom he had no comfort level. You can criticize him for executing a power play -- Maccagnan supporters call it back-stabbing -- but Gase got what he wanted. He got Douglas, the candidate he recommended to CEO Christopher Johnson.
"His evaluation skills are unbelievable," Gase said. "Coaches, staff, guys that worked with him in the past, they always would say, 'If Joe says a guy is a good player, believe him.' He knows what he's doing. Coaches trust him. You don't have the squabbles because he does such a great job of evaluating players."
Translation: I trust him. Gase didn't feel that way about Maccagnan, resulting in one of the shortest arranged marriages in NFL history.
Gase met Douglas when they worked for the Chicago Bears in 2015, when Gase was the offensive coordinator and Douglas was a top scout. Chicago was only a one-year stopover for both men -- they went on to bigger jobs -- but they hit it off in a short period of time. Douglas took a chance by leaving a cushy scouting job with the Baltimore Ravens, and he didn't know many people in Chicago.
