[ThePundit]

You can't make this stuff up. Reported by Marc Cannizaro in the NY Post.



One day after the Giants made every one of their assistant coaches available and on the same day when the Giants were walking their beat reporters into players' dorms for interviews, the following is a postcard from the Jets' first day of training camp:

One day after signing a contract that will pay him some $18 million in guaranteed money, No. 1 draft pick D'Brickashaw Ferguson twice ran away from interview requests by a small gaggle of reporters at the Hofstra cafeteria area.

On the second brush-off, on his way out of the cafeteria, Ferguson literally sprinted into a busy street to get away from reporters and some fans who were clamoring for autographs.

This, by the way, is a player who received media training around the time of the draft. What in the world do they teach these people?

And what are the Jets doing?

Some have made the analogy of the Giants being the varsity and the Jets, always the second-class citizens in this town, the jayvee. Yesterday, the Jets looked smaller than the jayvee. They looked pee-wee league.

What team in the NFL is not going to parade its top draft pick, the No. 4 overall pick in the draft, a pick that has been universally praised and a local product from nearby Freeport, in front of the public to celebrate his signing?

Answer: Not a single team in the league, other than the Jets.

Ferguson wasn't the only player who declined interview requests. He was just the most egregious.

In a league that craves to control the news media whenever possible, the Jets had a perfect chance to do so yesterday by making Ferguson available upon his signing.

That way, everyone would have written a positive story about Ferguson signing and reporting on time and being ready for his rookie year, and he wouldn't have been seen in such an embarrassing light - scurrying away from reporters and fans like a timid child.

Later in the day, the Jets slipped out a news release saying that Curtis Martin and Justin McCareins were placed on the physically unable to perform list.

That release, of course, was accompanied by not a single mention of what each player's respective injury is nor how long they might be out of commission.