Jets sad to see Todd Bowles get fired
New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles reacts to the Texans game winning touchdown during the second half of the Houston Texans at the New York Jets on December 15, 2018. Credit: Lee S. Weissman/Lee S. Weissman
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – The last few weeks have provided a loudspeaker on Todd Bowles’ deficiencies, both real and imagined. But as players worked to empty out their lockers – a day after the end of another disappointing Jets season, and a day after the end of Bowles’ four-year tenure – it was the coach’s one indisputable virtue that was the focus.
Many players liked Bowles, and many liked playing for him. And though his legacy here will be one of failure – he went 24-40 – it was clear more than a few people were sad to see him go.
“I really liked coach Bowles, from the moment I got here,” Jermaine Kearse said. “The conversations we’ve had, I felt I’ve grown as a man. Today is just part of the business. It’s an unfortunate part of the business, but it happens. As players, we just learn and try to move forward.”
Bowles was routinely praised for his consistency, and for his ability to not give into despair while his team was crumbling around him. The next coach, Quincy Enunwa said, will have to be a taskmaster: “No nonsense, in a way,” Enunwa said. “Crack down.”
Enunwa, who was on the Jets for every year of Bowles’ tenure said he planned to call him, and praised Bowles’ relative optimism, even in the face of an eighth straight season with no playoff berth and weeks of speculation that he was soon to lose his job.
“I think the most obvious thing (he taught him was) don’t get too high and don’t get too low, especially in this business,” Enunwa said. “He kind of showed that one the field really the ability to stay stoic. A lot of people looked at it as a negative, but I think it’s huge for a player to see a coach not get too down when bad things are happening so you kind of know there are always good times ahead. He was able to show he was happy as well, it’s just the cameras never caught it.”
Added Josh McCown: "We worked so closely together over the last two seasons…I have just so much respect for Todd…You hate to see that. It’s heartbreaking."
Avery Williamson called Bowles “a great person, a great coach,” adding that “I feel like he definitely…(brought) me to another level this year.”
“I don’t want to see Coach Bowles getting fired but it’s a business at the end of the day…I like Coach Bowles…but he’ll be alright.”
Sam Darnold, meanwhile, said he doesn’t know how involved he’ll be in the decision to hire a new coach, but planned to speak to the front office soon. Losing his head coach after his first year in the league “is not a good feeling,” he said.
“To come up short and then to hear the news that coach Bowles wasn’t going to be here anymore," Darnold said, "it (stinks) and hopefully throughout my career here, it never happens again.”
But for all the in memorium, Enunwa said he looked forward to whatever the future was going to be. “I’m definitely looking forward to a better future,” he said. “Nobody really likes change, but I think we’re all able to adapt.”
- with Bob Glauber
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
