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Wednesday, January 29, 2014
How the Jets handle trash talking

By Rich Cimini

Thanks to Richard Sherman's big mouth, trash talking is one of the front-and-center issues at Super Bowl XLVIII. The New York Jets happen to be well-versed on this subject. Who can forget Bart Scott's "Can't Wait!" rant after the Jets' stunning upset of the New England Patriots in the 2010 AFC divisional playoffs?

Scott's heat-of-the-moment reaction, in an on-field interview with ESPN's Sal Paolantonio, is worthy of the trash-talking Hall of Fame. It's worth a replay:

Scott: "To all the non-believers! To all the non-believers, especially you, Tom Jackson. Way to have our back, Keyshawn [Johnson]. Anybody can be beat!"

Paolantonio: "So how did that just feel?"

Scott: "It felt great. Poetic justice. We know we were a much better team than we came up and represented ourselves [on Dec. 7, a 45-3 loss]. We were pissed off. We were ready to come back and show what type of defense, what type of team this was, what type of character we had. We take a lot of slack. People gave us no chance, like we barely made the playoffs. We're a good football team."

Paolantonio: "It looks like this team played with anger all day. Why, Bart?"

Scott: "For all you non-believers, disrespect us, talk crap about the defense. We're the third-best defense in the league. All we hear about is their defense [the Patriots]. They can't stop a nosebleed, 25th in the league and we're the ones that get disrespected."

Paolantonio: "Congratulations. See you in Pittsburgh."

Scott: "Can't wait!"

Times have changed. Once known for their loose lips, the Jets have toned it down, including the bombastic Rex Ryan. The culture is different because general manager John Idzik, hired last January, frowns upon trash talking. There's a sense of paranoia, as people in the organization -- players and non-players -- are afraid to speak their mind. They still have some in-game trash talkers, most notably guard Willie Colon, and they still have a few players that provide juicy quotes to the media (namely defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson), but it's not the way it used to be.

On a scale of red (not allowed), yellow (within reason) and green (go for it), Ryan's approach has changed from green to a red/yellow combo.