Happy Thanksgiving
Edition #979:
Good morning! ☕
I just wanted to send a quick message to wish every reader and every subscriber a very Happy Thanksgiving! Although we don’t celebrate it on this side of the pond, it’s a holiday I’ve become fond of over the years thanks to my work around the Jets and all the amazing people I’ve met, especially the community here.
So whether you’re surrounded by family today or spending Thanksgiving alone, just know that you have friends here at TJW and we’re all wishing you the very best day. Football, beer (if you drink) and plenty of food is on order. I’m working the Packers vs Lions game tonight, so that will be great fun too.
I also just want to give a shout out to JB over at Mets Fix who rallied the troops in his effort to raise $6,634 which will provide over over 1900 meals on Thanksgiving day! What an incredible achievement and thank you to everyone at TJW wo donated and I know there are a few of you! Sports fans often get a bad reputation, but this shows that we can come together to make a difference.
I’m not sure anyone is going to want to read about the Jets today, so I’m going to keep it nice and short with plenty of quick hitters, then we’ll be back to preview the Atlanta Falcons game on Friday! Where I expect most of you will be slowly recovering from your food induced coma!
QUICK HITTERS
🦃 The Jets have one takeaway this season which means they’ll almost certainly break the record for fewest takeaways in an NFL season, a record held by the San Francisco 49ers who recorded 7 in 2018.
🦃 Staying with turnover differential. The Jets right now are last in the NFL at -13 yet 11 teams in the NFL have turned the ball over more on the offensive side of the ball.
🦃 One final note on turnovers. The Jets at 1, are 23 turnovers behind the league leading Jaguars and only 6 teams in the NFL have less than 10, the Jets are the only team to have under 5 turnovers.
🦃 Aaron Glenn isn’t the only one to be impressed by John Metchie III: “He [Metchie] is a pro like you want to talk about what a pro is, that’s John,” Jets OC Tanner Engstrand said. “He’s a very instinctual, smart football player that loves the game and he wants to just help this team be as good as it can. [Mitchell] has taken the playbook and he’s absorbed it, the game plans for that week and knowing where to line up, and learning the details of his routes and the blocking schemes in the run game. Quite frankly, they have surpassed my expectations of getting a receiver in the building at the trade deadline.”
🦃 AD Mitchell singled out QB Tyrod Taylor for some special praise: “Tyrod has done an amazing job just helping me and Metchie out. Especially this past week, we just spent pretty much the whole week together. And before we were really acclimated to the offense, he took the time to explain to us certain things with the plays. He’s definitely a vet’s vet.”
🦃 The Athletic had a mock draft that will send some Jets fans into a rage, strangely enough I’m find with Caleb Downs: “The Jets need everything. So, although Downs a safety by trade who can play corner, slot or even sub linebacker might scare people from a positional-value standpoint, he is still my favorite player, pound for pound, in the class. He’s a potential culture-changer.”
🦃 Harrison Phillips is the Jets’ nominee for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award which is given annually in recognition of outstanding sportsmanship on the playing field.
🦃 It sounds as though the Jets won’t have to deal with Drake London this weekend. Raheem Morris has labelled his star receiver as “doubtful”.
🦃 Justin Fields spoke to the media and said his benching took him by surprise, which is a little strange to me. He did say he still sees himself as a starter but knows he needs to be more consistent, he also expressed confidence that he’ll get another chance to start at some point in the future. He was also asked if he was open to returning to the Jets as a backup: “I’m not going to have that mindset in terms of, ‘Oh, they benched me. I’m not [going] to play here.’ I think that’s a bad mindset to have.”
🦃 The Jets had one of the shortest injury reports I’ve ever seen since I started writing about the team in 2006. They listed just one player, Harrison Phillips who missed practice due to foot injury.
🦃 The Bills released former Jets receiver Elijah Moore this week. He caught 9 passes for 112 yards in 9 games this season in Buffalo without a receiving TD (he did have a rushing TD). Moore has struggled since leaving the Jets, his rookie season in 2021 is still his best statical season (43 catches, 538 yards, 5 TDs). Moore requested a trade due to not being involved enough in the offensive gameplan and there were rumours he and Mike LaFleur didn’t see eye to eye.
🦃 Earlier this week the Jets hosted former first round pick Kaiir Elam, but he won’t be signing with the Jets, at least not for now. The former Buffalo man signed a deal with the Tennessee Titans yesterday.
Today we here in the USA are celebrating Thanksgiving today.
For me personally, I felt a little bummed out that David wouldn’t be participating in our holiday today.
But it’s a possibility that he might be having turkey and stuffing with his family today.
I have reason to believe that one of David’s ancestors, Elisha Wyatt- Hupton was a stowaway on the Mayflower.
Elisha in his youth was a bit of a scoundrel. He was a very handsome man about 6’ tall with a mop of red hair on his head. He was known to hang around pubs, playing darts for pints.
He came from the Foxborough section of Slough which was south of Norwich.
He was a skillful writer. Wrote short stories and poems.
Supposedly wrote very suggestive poems to certain women of Slough.
He was so sure of his suggestive writings, he would purposely give his poems to Pilgrim and Puritan virginal women. Rumor has it, these very strict, religious women would become defenseless after reading his poems.
On one particular occasion, Elisha was all set to deflower a young Puritan girl. Her father a fire breathing elder learned of the tryst.
Elisha fearing the dunking chair and probably the stocks jumped out a second story window as he was chased by the maniacal elder.
He saw a line of Pilgrims ready to board the Mayflower. He hid among them. He became a stowaway.
Though there is no written evidence of an Elisha Wyatt-Hupton in Plymouth, it’s very possible he used the name John Alden or Myles Standish.
There is a very famous painting of the signing of the Mayflower Compact by Jean Leon Gerhome Ferris. Dead center is a tall man, white shirt and very red hair. Could this be Elisha.
Supposedly the famous dinner between the Pilgrims and Massasoit and his Wampanoag tribe was not a dinner but a three day celebration of eating and games.
Elisha kept a journal of the different type of games that the Indians played. Possibly Lacrosse or Field Hockey, archery and canoeing.
Elisha was one who could never keep his hormones in check.
Instead of strict religious women, he set his sights on young Indian maidens.
Luckily for him that the Mayflower was going back to England. It appears that a few Wampanoag braves wanted his scalp.
On his return to England, he started writing about the games being played in the colonies and in England. He published a weekly paper called “ The Mayflower Way”. He was sort of like the first sports writer in England.
Based on these facts, David without a question of a doubt is one of us, a turkey eating colonists.
Pass the cranberry sauce, David.
Happy Thanksgiving to all and especially David and his family.
Real Thanksgiving history, no mention of Elisha.
Probably two of the most shocking games on Thanksgiving were the 1962 undefeated Packers going into Detroit and getting destroyed and the Clint Longley game in Dallas.
The Packers were 10-0 when they faced the Lions on Thanksgiving. The Pack was a juggernaut.
By the time the game was over, Bart Starr was sacked 11 times and Lombardi and his team lost their only game of the year 26-14.
They went on to win the NFL championship game, finishing the season 14-1.
In 1974, Washington, leading the NFC east with a 8-3 record was looking to win the divisional title against the 6-5 Cowboys.
There were rumors before the game that George Allen put out some sort of bounty against Roger Staubach. It was never proven but Roger the Dodger exited the third quarter with an injury.
In came Clint Longley
Longley, then a rookie, came into the game for an injured Roger Staubach with the Cowboys trailing 16–3 in the third quarter, and facing elimination from the playoffs. After hitting Billy Joe Dupree for a 35-yard touchdownpass, he led the Cowboys on a 70-yard drive capped by a 1-yard Walt Garrison touchdown run. Finally, with the Cowboys behind 23–17 and with only 28 seconds left with no time outs, Longley hit Drew Pearson at the left sideline for a 50-yard hail mary pass touchdownwhich gave the Cowboys a dramatic 24–23 come from behind victory.
Longley became an overnight media star. Unfortunately that game was the highlight of his career.
Evidently Moore was released by Buffalo to make room for Brandin Cooks who was released by the Saints.
Supposedly there was some nonsense that the league looked into.
Supposedly the Saints were trying to circumvent the waiver rules so that Cooks could get picked up by a certain team. That team never revealed.
Since it is a holiday today, I’ll be charitable and leave Justin Fields be.